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In 2023, the volume of cashless payments in Kazakhstan amounted to $315 billion, which is a 20% increase over the national GDP and a 39% increase compared to last year, according to the Association of Financiers of Kazakhstan.

The share of cashless payments increased from 82.5% to 86.2% throughout the country. The Almaty region (+9.9 percentage points), Turkestan (+9.5 p.p.) and West Kazakhstan (+5.4 p.p.) region accounted for the highest growth of the rate.

Online payments are the most popular (83%) followed by payments through POS terminals (10.9%) and QR codes (6.0%).

AFK’s experts believe that the number of cashless...

The National Bank of Kazakhstan reported that its international reserves reached $34.5 billion as of late January 2024, which is a $978.33 million decline compared to the same period last year. The rate increased by $222 million month-on-month though, according to the regulator.

Net foreign assets of the National Bank, which is the difference between its external assets and liabilities toward nonresidents, dropped by 1.3% month-on-month and 1.6% year-on-year from $96.8 billion to $95.2 billion.

External assets

Under the National Bank’s methodology of monetary policy, net foreign assets include the following: net international reserves calculated as the difference between...

New Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Olzhas Bektenov has instructed the Ministry of Finance to carry out an audit of the national and municipal budgets in order to cut unnecessary expenditures, according to the cabinet’s press service.

Bektenov has already met with officials responsible for financial and economic issues.

According to the prime minister, all public money must be focused on goals that will eventually provide an economic output, while all unnecessary costs must be cut completely.

«I am ordering the Ministry of Finance to carry out the audit of the national budget within ten days and...

Ilham Aliyev, the current president of Azerbaijan, has been reelected. He won 92.1% of the votes, according to the Аzertag news agency, citing the country’s Central Election Commission (CEC). Seven candidates took part in the election of Azerbaijani president.

According to Mazahir Panahov, chair of the CEC, voter turnover for the elections was more than 76%. As of the morning, the committee gathered results from 6,102 out of 6,537 voting stations in 125 election districts.

Seven candidates ran for office including Aliyev, who is participating in the presidential elections for the fifth time. The CEC reported the following results:

Ilham...

Emergency response specialists discovered the bodies of four people after a landslide in the Tau Samal micro-district in Almaty. All victims of the disaster were members of one family: two adults and two teenagers.

The Ministry on Emergency Situations said that it is offering necessary psychological assistance to relatives and neighbors of the victims.

«As of now, we have discovered and recovered the bodies of a man born in 1984, a woman born in 1980 and two teenagers born in 2007,» the agency said in a statement.

Rescue personnel are continuing debris and mud clearance

«This...

Experts of the financial market interviewed by the Association of Financiers of Kazakhstan (AFK) have predicted that the annual inflation will drop to 8.8% this year if the base rate is at 12.5%, the February survey by the AFK says.

By early March the USD exchange rate is expected at 455 tenge (457 in the January survey). The slight weakening of the American currency in Kazakhstan is due to the February taxation period, when businesses must pay corporate income, mineral extraction tax, export rental tax and other payments for 2023.

However, the experts warned that the high volatility of oil...

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has worsened its outlook for Kazakhstan GDP’s growth to 3.1% compared to 4.2%, a rate forecasted in October 2023. At the same time, the institution has improved its forecast for the next year from 4.6% to 5.7%.

The IMF got more pessimistic about this year due to the risk of delays with the expansion project on the Tengiz oil field; decline in oil prices, potential problems with oil exports and slowing economic growth in trading partners (the EU and China), according to Halyk Finance.

For example, the IMF is forecasting oil prices to drop by...

According to President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, there is no effective regulation of the construction sector in Kazakhstan. He suggested simplifying the process of getting approval documentation for investors in the sector.

As the president noted, the current methodology for calculating construction projects’ costs based on approximate estimates has fallen behind modern international standards.

«Investors lose their money and time; they go to other countries with fewer requirements necessary to obtain approval documents for construction. The cabinet needs to simplify this process of getting approval documents for investors,» the president said during a meeting with cabinet members.

New Minister of National Economy of Kazakhstan Nurlan Baibazarov, appointed to the position by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on February 6, revealed on the sidelines of the cabinet what is going to happen with the Value-Added Tax (VAT) within a massive tax reform.

The ministry has been preparing the new Tax Code for a while. The increase of the VAT from 12% to 16% is one of the key elements of the reform. At the initial stage, the ministry even wanted to raise the tax to 20% but later dropped the idea.

According to the Ministry of National Economy, the VAT...

In January 2024, the Astana International Exchange (AIX) reported record-high trading volumes of stocks. It amounted to $25.5 million, which is the best result the exchange has ever shown. Stocks of Polymetal International have accounted for the lion’s share of this success. More generally, foreign stocks became a significant part of stock trading on the AIX this January (37%).

Polymetal International is ranked among the top ten gold producers in the world. The company’s shares have been traded on the AIX since 2019. In 2023, Polymetal redomiciliated from the island of Jersey to the Astana International Financial Center (AIFC). As...

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has appointed Olzhas Bektenov, former head of the presidential administration, as the new prime minister of Kazakhstan. Bektenov’s nomination was supported by 69 MPs, while seven MPs abstained from voting.

Today, on February 6, President Tokayev took part in the Mazhilis session where he officially nominated Bektenov for the post of the country’s prime minister.

«I am proposing Olzhas Bektenov as the candidate for the post of prime minister. He’s been nominated by the Amanat party. This is an experienced public servant, a well-educated and hard-working person with good organizational skills. This is...

Bagdat Musin, minister of digital development, innovations and the aerospace industry, has announced the upcoming arrival of a new surveillance system, designed to monitor violations of environmental legislation. All companies whose activities are linked with the emission of ozone-destroying substances are expected to be enrolled in this new automated system of monitoring starting this year, Zakon.kz reported.

A wide range of enterprises such as thermal power plants, refineries and metallurgic plants will be obliged to install equipment specially designed to gauge the number of emissions and transfer this data to a regulatory authority online.

«It’s like...

The Amanat political party has nominated Olzhas Bektenov, the head of the presidential administration, to be the new prime minister in Kazakhstan.

As Akorda, the official residence of the president of the Republic of Kazakhstan, reported, Chair of Mazhilis Yerlan Koshanov has proposed the candidacy of Olzhas Bektenov for the post of prime minister during a meeting with the president.

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev is expected to discuss the proposed candidacy with the leaders of political factions within Mazhilis, the lower house of the country’s parliament.

What do we know about the candidate? Olzhas Bektenov was born in 1980 in Almaty...

This year, Kazakhstan’s economy is expected to grow by 5.3% at least, according to the country’s cabinet.

In 2023, the country reported economic growth of 5.1%. For instance, key industries such as the construction sector grew by 12.3%; trade by 11.3%; telecommunication services by 7.1%; transportation services by 6.9% and the production sector by 4.3%.

Foreign direct investments (FDI) in Kazakhstan amounted to $19.7 billion over the first nine months of 2023; non-commodity sectors accounted for more than $11 billion of this money. Investments in fixed capital rose by 13.7%.

The cabinet reported a 20-year high FDI rate (annual rate...

According to the Association of Financiers of Kazakhstan (AFK), last year commercial banks shifted their focus from retail lending to business loans. This tendency is going to continue this year as well.

The lending pace has slowed against the backdrop of shrinking benefit mortgage and car loan programs as well as a decline in the inflow of new borrowers to 411,000 in 2023, compared to 549,000 new borrowers in 2022. As a result, the retail lending pace dropped from 31.3% in 2022 to 26.7% in 2023 ($36.5 billion).

On the other hand, the amount of business loans grew by...

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has dismissed the country’s cabinet. The first Deputy Prime Minister Roman Sklyar has been appointed as the executive prime minister.

«I hereby order to accept the resignation of the cabinet of the Republic of Kazakhstan and appoint Roman Sklyar the executive prime minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan,» the press service of the president reported, citing the edict.

Also, the president instructed members of the cabinet to continue performing their duties until the new cabinet is formed.

The edict immediately entered into force.

On February 7, a new prime minister is expected...

According to Aslan Tukiyev, chair of the judicial panel on administrative cases of the Supreme Court, investors won 78% of legal cases in Astana courts in 2023. It harms the country’s investment attractiveness, the official says.

«This data is terrifying. This means that in seven to eight cases out of ten, investors were right in their arguments with the government, claims of which were unjustified. This situation can have a negative impact on our economy as it demotivates investors. We are going to discuss this issue. We want this figure to decline; we as a country...

The Ministry of Defense of Kazakhstan is concerned about military personnel turnover. According to Sultan Kamaletdinov, the first deputy defense minister, this is happening because the ministry is underfinanced.

«The turnover of military personnel causes particular concern as the situation hasn’t been improving for several years now. One the key reasons for this is low salaries,» Kamaletdinov said during a meeting of the Committee on International Affairs, Defense and Security of the Mazhilis (the lower house of the country’s parliament).

As the official noted, more than 17,000 troops have left the army over the past...

The Kyrgyz Republic has won a $35 million arbitration case against QazaqGaz (formerly known as KazTransGas), according to the Kyrgyz media, citing the country’s Ministry of Justice.

«According to the ministry, on January 30, 2024, the arbitration tribunal supported the stance of the Kyrgyz Republic and refused to satisfy claims by the plaintiff (QazaqGas). In 2020, QazaqGas initiated the arbitrary trial against the Kyrgyz Republic under UNCITRAL’s rules adopted in 1976. During the litigation, the complainant demanded $35 million worth of compensation, although it later dropped its claim for lost profits and the sum in the...

The Applied Economic Research Center (AERC) is forecasting that Kazakhstan’s economy will grow by 4.5% in 2024, although it also expects budget parameters to get worse while lowering inflation slows down.

The think tank’s analysis is based on a mix of two models: under the model of aggregated demand, the real GDP growth is expected at 4.6% (previously at 4.2%), while under the model of aggregated supply — 4.4% (4.3%).

Also, the AERC forecast draws on a set of factors such as future oil prices, inflation and economic growth in countries that are trading partners with Kazakhstan. In 2024, a...

The Ministry of Finance has prepared a draft regulation that may legally pin a mechanism of purchasing KazMunayGas (KMG) shares by the National Fund as a regular practice. The document has been published on the www.legalacts.egov.kz website for public review.

The draft document suggests some adjustments to the agreement with the National Bank concerning trust management of the National Fund. The practice of buying KGM shares at the expense of the fund and with a discount to the market price is going to be a key novelty to the agreement. This scheme became possible last year when Kazakhstan adopted a...

The Ministry of Water Resources is going to promote water-saving technologies among Kazakhstani farmers with the help of financial incentives. Even though the country’s government already reimburses 50% of costs related to purchasing water-saving equipment, this year the amount of subsidizing will reach 80%.

According to Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Nurzhan Nurzhigitov, about 16% of irrigated land in Kazakhstan is irrigated with the help of water-saving technologies.

«Water conservation technologies are used only in 312,200 hectares of irrigated lands out of 1.9 million hectares, which is unforgivingly small these days. Given the threat of...

In 2023, Kazakhstan once again was included in the list of highly corrupted countries, although it managed to improve its position in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) by Transparency International. In the 2023 index, Kazakhstan was ranked 93rd out of 180 countries, scoring 39 points out of 100.

Last year, Kazakhstan was ranked 101st. Transparency International says that the country managed to improve its position due to the more active behavior of the public after the January events.

«We believe that the improvement of the country’s rank (+3 scores) compared to 2022 happened due to the...

A consortium of investors from the Sultanate of Oman has purchased 23.9% of Polymetal International, a Kazakhstani producer of gold and silver, from ICT Holding by Alexander Nesis. As a result, the company no longer possesses a stake in the mining enterprise.

On January 28, 2024, Maaden International Investment (MDI), a subsidiary of Mars Development and Investment (MDI), a state company in Oman, acquired 113.2 million shares of Polymetal. No details of the contract were disclosed.

MDI is investing in various global industries, including commodity and financial businesses that meet the strategic priorities of the Sultanate. Maaden International Investment was...