News

The National Bank of Kazakhstan «fully understands» the risks associated with the softening of the monetary policy that has been happening since August 2023. According to Nicolas Blanchet, head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Mission for Kazakhstan, the lowering of the base rate was the right decision, although the previous recommendation of the fund urged the country’s government to stick to a more balanced policy.

Since the beginning of the year, the regulator has cut the base rate twice by 100 basis points in total. Interestingly, in November 2023, the IMF recommended Kazakhstan not to rush with the softening...

Fitch Ratings, the international rating agency, has rated Bereke Bank at BB with a negative outlook. According to the agency’s press release, it will lower the rating for the bank once it is sold to Lesha Bank from Qatar.

«Fitch is expecting that once the sale of the bank to Lesha Bank is completed, the bank’s ratings will likely be downgraded. In our view, the likelihood of support being provided to Bereke from the Kazak state or from the bank’s new shareholder after the sale is uncertain and will be lower than its ‘BB’ Long-Term Issuer...

Boston Consulting Group, a global management consulting firm, has conducted an audit of working conditions at Qarmet. As a result, the experts suggested the Kazakhstani company carry out a large-scale modernization of its coal mines, the company said in a statement.

The top priority task is to equip all mines with positioning systems. This will help the company know exactly where its employees are in the mines at every given moment.

In turn, the international auditors have advised Qarmet to establish a central dispatcher service to control these positioning systems dispersed throughout mines. Also, the new service will let the...

The Eurasia Development Bank (EDB) has proposed 12 practical steps aimed at the further development of economic cooperation within the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU). This proposal covers a wide range of spheres such as physical infrastructure (transport, hydro-energy complex and food logistics), trading and financial relations, including sustainable funding and cooperation in the humanitarian field, the organization reported on its website.

«In order to deepen this cooperation, more practical solutions are needed; solutions that might be implemented in a rapid manner and within flexible configurations of member states. The development of direct horizontal mechanisms of cooperation...

As the Reuters news agency reported, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has revealed casualties of the Ukrainian military during the war against Russia. According to him, the country has lost 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers. This is the first such statement since the end of 2022.

As the media outlet noted, Zelensky refused to reveal the number of wounded during his press conference in Kyiv as this may help the Russians in their military offensive planning.

Ukraine hasn’t reported its casualties since the end of 2022, when Mykhailo Podolyak, a Ukrainian presidential advisor, said that Ukraine had lost 13,000 soldiers since the...

The Kaspi.kz fintech group is going to delist its American Depository Shares (ADS) and global depository receipts (GDR) from the London Stock Exchange (LSE) before March 25, the company said in a statement.

As the company noted, the decision to leave was driven by the low volume of trade on the LSE as well as the high costs and administrative burden on the group. Kaspi said it has spent too much compared to the limited liquidity of ADS and GDR on the LSE.

The LSE rules require companies listed on the exchange to notify them about their intention to leave...

After taking part in the parliamentary elections on February 25, 2024, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko told journalists that he is going to go for the presidency next year, the BELTA news agency reported.

«Yes. Sure. I am going to go for the presidency. Say this to them (those who have left the country)! The more intense the situation is, the more actively they will stir the pot, I mean, the more pressure they’ll put on me and our society, the faster I’ll go to these elections. This is very important for me as no one...

Kazakhstani brokerage companies reported a 22% increase in assets year-on-year from $978 million in February 2023 to $1.1 billion in February 2024, according to the National Bank of Kazakhstan.

At the same time, the companies also reported a 42% increase in their liabilities. For instance, those were equal to $312 million in February last year compared to $444 million now. The equity capital of the companies has increased by 12.7% from $667 million to $752 million.

However, both assets and liabilities of the companies decreased in January after growth in December month-on-month. For example, as of December 1, 2023, brokers...

According to Digital Minister Bagdat Musin, the first 500 Starlink devices have arrived in Kazakhstan. He wrote this on Instagram.

«I’ve come to Almaty to ensure that all devices were accepted properly. We are going to start delivering devices to schools in the Turkestan and Akmola region which are ready to operate with Starlink next week. Local executive authorities have already done all the preparatory work,» Musin said.

He also noted that all the remaining regions will receive the equipment after the country receives the next delivery in ten days. The government has bought...

The European Union has imposed new sanctions against a set of companies, including several from Kazakhstan, for their «support of the Russian military and industrial complex.» No details about what companies have been sanctioned were provided.

The EU has imposed the 13th package of individual and economic sanctions against Russia for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. According to the EU’s press release, some of these sanctioned organizations are located in third-party countries such as Kazakhstan, India, Sri Lanka, China, Serbia, Thailand and Turkey.

«They will be subject to tighter export restrictions concerning dual-use goods and technologies...

The participation of Armenia in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) has been ‘frozen’ while the issue of the presence of the Russian military base in Armenia is off the agenda, said Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan in an interview with France 24.

The media outlet also reported, citing the politician, that Armenian participation in the CSTO has been frozen due to Russia’s «open call on Armenian people to overthrow the current government.»

«The Kremlin’s propaganda against me has never stopped,» Pashinyan highlighted.

He also accused the official Baku of considering Armenia as ‘Western...

The Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market (ARDFM) has prepared a draft law aimed at softening requirements for foreign banks that want to open subsidiaries and branch offices in Kazakhstan. The agency will introduce these amendments to the parliament very soon, according to Olzhas Kizatov, deputy chairman of the ARDFM.

As he noted, the agency has already cut the number of documents foreign banks should gather to open their subsidiaries in Kazakhstan.

«We know that in many cases this information might be received from other sources. Often, some documents double each other in...

The amount of international reserves in Kazakhstan has been gradually decreasing since 2020, reaching $35.6 billion as of December 2023. This is enough to cover a six-month import, which is twice as big as the standard but still lower than in many other developing countries, including neighboring ones, according to Halyk Finance.

According to the company’s analysts, Kazakhstan’s international reserves are gradually depleting due to various external shocks and ongoing problems with the state budget and payment balance.

«It definitely would be a good idea for the government to regularly assess their international reserves to cover...

The Russian Tatneft has acquired 50% shares of Karaton Operating Ltd., which supervises the Karaton Podsolevoy project, from KazMunayGas (KMG), the national oil company in Kazakhstan.

«Under the purchase and sale agreement, KMG sells 50% shares of Karaton Operating Ltd. (operator of the Karaton Podsolevoy project) to the Russian Tatneft. The documents were signed by Chair of the Board of KMG Magzum Mirzagaliyev and Director General of Tatneft Nail Maganov,» the company said in a statement, not mentioning any details of the deal.

As Mirzagaliyev noted, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has ordered the cabinet to attract...

The Ministry of Digital Development, Innovations and Aerospace Industry plans to lease or acquire the infrastructure necessary for the creation of a supercomputer. The cost of the project is still the subject of discussion.

According to the Digital Ministry, the main purpose of the supercomputer is to facilitate the development of artificial intelligence (AI) in Kazakhstan. The new AI system is necessary for the creation of Kaz LLM (large language model) and might be used in different economic sectors such as IT, finance, healthcare, energy and manufacturing. Currently, the ministry is trying to launch close cooperation with tech companies and...

According to KZ-CERT, the national Computer Emergency Response Team in Kazakhstan, a group of Chinese hackers had access to the infrastructure of Kazakhstani telecommunication operators for two years.

As CERT noted, this month unknown people published secret data leaked from iSoon (aka Anxun), one of the contractors of the Ministry of Public Security of China, on GitHub. According to this data, at least one Chinese hacker group had full access to the critical infrastructure of Kazakhstani telecommunication operators over the past two years.

«Attackers were interested in both general information such as databases and more specific...

The National Bank of Kazakhstan is going to announce its next decision on the base rate on February 23. Currently, the rate is at 15.25%. The vast majority of experts believe that the base rate will be lowered by 25 basis points, while others anticipate as much as 50 to 100 b.p.

Usually, the lowering of the base rate leads to cheaper loans for regular consumers and businesses. According to 67% of experts interviewed by the Association of Financiers of Kazakhstan in February, the base rate will be decreased by 25 b.p. (to 15%). The remaining experts say that the...

Freedom Telecom, a subsidiary of Freedom Holding Corp., is conducting pilot testing for Wi-Fi 7, a new technology that supports fast internet, as it plans to boost the speed of wireless internet connection by six to 30 times. Within a new Wi-Fi network, the speed of an internet connection surpasses three gigabits per second compared to 100-500 megabits per second provided by almost all Kazakhstani operators.

With high internet speed users will be able to download and transfer large amounts of data, conduct video streaming in high quality and play video games with no latency.

A new Wi-Fi network can...

Kazakhstan and South Korea are planning to boost the number of flights between each other and launch several new ones. According to the Civil Aviation Committee of Kazakhstan (CAC), Vice Minister of Transport Talgat Lastayev has started negotiations with T’Way, a South Korean low-cost airline.

As the CAC noted, the two sides want to boost the number of flights for two destinations: Astana – Seoul and Almaty – Seoul. Moreover, new flights from Shymkent to the capital city of South Korea and from Busan to several Kazakhstani cities will emerge. This information was revealed after a meeting of Lastayev with...

Experts of Halyk Finance have cast doubt on the government’s plan to reach economic growth at 6% this year; the plan was announced at a cabinet meeting recently. The experts point out low labor efficiency and the huge role of the government in the country’s economy.

In January, economic growth slowed to 3.9% year-on-year as many industries reported a decline, as Minister of National Economy Nurlan Baibazarov said in mid-February. In 2023, Kazakhstan’s economy grew by 5.1%.

«At the end of last year, we injected the economy with cash from the National Fund but the positive...

The World Bank’s Pandemic Fund has provided Kazakhstan a three-year grant of $46 million, according to the country’s health ministry.

«Kazakhstan has become one of 36 countries in the World Health Organizartion (WHO) European Region provided with a country grant of $19 million and a multicounty grant of $27 million for three years,» the ministry said in a statement.

This money will be allocated for improving epidemiological control, border control, lab safety, a system of early identification and response, and training for personnel. The WHO Country Office in Kazakhstan is going to coordinate the implementation...

According to Energy Minister of Kazakhstan Almasadam Satkaliyev, Germany is interested in boosting Kazakhstan’s oil exports up to 200,000 tons per month; the oil goes to Germany via the Druzhba main oil pipeline. Over the period from May to October 2023, Kazakhstan exported about 100,000 tons of oil to Germany per month. In November, exports increased to 154,000 tons. In general, the EU accounted for more than half of all oil Kazakhstan exported last year (46.6 million tons). The minister revealed this data during his interview with the Adevural newspaper from Romania.

«In 2023, Kazakhstan exported...

According to the Association of Financiers of Kazakhstan (AFK), over the period from 2019 to 2023, the growth of the consolidated budget of Kazakhstan (state and local budgets plus transfers and spending of the National Fund) was lagging behind the increase in spending by 87 percentage points. This is why the government constantly increased the amount of its borrowing (by 1.7 times to $12.2 billion) and the size of transfers from the National Fund ($40.4 billion over the five years).

Sources of income for the budget

Over the past five years, there have been no significant changes in the consolidated...

Knauf Gruppe, GP Günter Papenburg AG and Roxtec, leading German companies, have established a consortium in order to explore and produce lithium in Kazakhstan, according to the Ministry of Industry and Construction of the Republic of Kazakhstan. German Institute for Technologies and Economics of Lithium (ITEL) will also take part in the project.

The consortium participants have already established a working group that is expected to review the potential of Kazakhstani lithium reserves.

In June 2023, HMS Bergbau AG, another German company, agreed to cooperate with Kazakhstan’s Creada Corporation and allocate $200 million in investments for lithium exploration in the...