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Kazakhstani banks ramped up the issuance of cards within the Mastercard and Visa payment systems in January, according to the National Bank. This came amid reports that the validity period of cards issued to foreigners would be limited to one year.

As of Jan. 1, there were 54.6 million international payment cards in circulation in Kazakhstan, increasing to 56.7 million by Feb. 1. The month-on-month (MoM) increase was 2.1 million or 3.9%. According to Rbc.ru, this was the sharpest pace of increase since April 2023, when the number of cards rose by 4%.

A similar rate — 3.6% — was...

The Freedom Holding Corp. Kazakhstan Manufacturing PMI (Purchasing Managers’ Index) posted 52.1 in February, up from 51.5 in January. The index ranges from 0 to 100, with readings above 50 indicating growth and below 50 signaling contraction. The latest figure marks 12 consecutive months of strengthening operating conditions.

A key driver of February’s overall improvement was the ability for firms to secure new orders. New business increased for the 13th straight month, growing at a faster pace than in January. Respondents cited improved demand, new contract signings and the impact of advertising.

The increase in new orders led to a...

Kazakhstan has dramatically increased flower imports from China, surging nearly 13 times from $0.6 million in 2023 to $7.5 million in 2024. As a result, China is now the fourth-largest flower supplier to Kazakhstan, rising from its previous fifth-place position.

In 2024, Kazakhstan imported a total of $93.6 million worth of flowers, a 52.8% increase year-on-year (YoY) from $61.3 million.

The top five flower suppliers to Kazakhstan remain Ecuador, the Netherlands, Kenya, China and Colombia, collectively accounting for 97.5% of total flower imports. Even with a 13-fold increase in exports, China’s share of Kazakhstan’s flower imports only reached 8%, though...

Kazakhstan could export up to one million tons of grain to the European Union (EU) if no barriers to exports are set by Russian seaports, Kazakhstan’s Ambassador to Russia Dauren Abayev stated in an interview with Ria.ru. According to the official, Russia does not accept Kazakhstani grain for transshipment, prioritizing local traders instead.

«At numerous meetings and negotiations with our Russian counterparts, we are working to lift the limitations. This would allow Kazakhstan to export up to one million tons of grain to EU markets,» he said.

In 2024, Kazakhstan reported a grain yield of...

Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has approved a new concept of state religious policy, according to the Gazeta.uz portal. The policy was introduced in response to recent attempts to impose religious-based rules that challenge gender equality, scientific progress and national interests.

Although Uzbekistan declared itself a secular state in 1992, the document notes that some citizens have advocated for religious-based restrictions, including:

Additionally, some individuals have questioned gender equality and certain civil servants have failed...

Qarmet, a Kazakhstani steel and mining company, is set to equip all of its mines with underground monitoring systems to oversee 14,000 mine workers in real time.

According to Yerbol Ismailov, managing director for sustainable development at Qarmet, the company is seeking to enhance safety at its facilities. During a meeting with members of the Senate, the upper house of Kazakhstan’s parliament, he revealed the company’s plans aimed at improving safety measures.

«Everything that happens in the mining industry, including the reasons behind strikes and accidents, is always on our agenda. The company’s approach to these...

Azerbaijan’s National Assembly (Milli Majlis) has proposed a law that would require men to make regular contributions to the country’s pension fund on behalf of their unemployed wives. The initiative was introduced by MP Mubariz Gurbanli during a conference marking the Year of the Constitution and Sovereignty of Azerbaijan.

The proposal specifically targets men who prohibit their wives from working.

«Some men do not allow their wives to work, which can impact their financial security in retirement. In such cases, a portion of the husband’s salary should be transferred to his wife’s pension account. This must...

Kazakhstan’s National Security Committee (KNB) is investigating Kazakhstani citizen Petr Miroshnichenko, not for mercenarism, but for participating in foreign armed conflicts, the agency told Kursiv.media.

«The KNB is conducting a pre-trial investigation under Article 172 (Participation in foreign armed conflicts) of the Criminal Code. Other details, under Part 1 of Article 201 of the Criminal Procedural Code, are not subject to disclosure,» the committee stated.

In Kazakhstan, a conviction for mercenarism carries a prison sentence of seven to 12 years, while participation in foreign conflicts is punishable by five to nine years.

On Feb...

On Feb. 27, Kursiv.media released the final issue of its business weekly in Kazakhstan, Tatyana Nikolaeva, editor-in-chief of the Kursiv newspaper, announced. Since its launch in 2002, the newspaper has published 1,073 issues and more than 10,000 pages of printed content.

“If you have been a regular reader of the newspaper, you may have noticed changes in print quality over the past several months. At the beginning of 2025, we had to switch to another print shop. These businesses are also disappearing as the space for print media continues to shrink in today’s digital world,” Nikolaeva...

Kazakhstan will require approximately $9.9 billion to service its public debt and cover the state budget deficit next year. By 2029, this figure could rise to $17.2 billion if there are no restrictions on withdrawals from the National Fund. According to Vice Minister of National Economy Azamat Amrin, raising taxes is the only way to prevent further growth of the state budget deficit.

The new Budget Code stipulates that increases in public spending cannot exceed the long-term average GDP growth over the past 10 years, adjusted for the inflation target. As a result, the ministry projects that spending will reach...

Kazakhstan scored just 23 out of 100 in Freedom in the World 2025, an annual ranking by Freedom House, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization. Freedom House evaluates countries based on political rights and civil liberties, categorizing them as «Free,» «Partly Free» or «Not Free.» Kazakhstan’s score and its corresponding «Not Free» status have remained unchanged for the past five years.

In 2024, Kazakhstanis saw no improvement in their level of freedom. The country scored only 5 out of 40 for political rights and 18 out of 60 for civil liberties.

Experts attribute Kazakhstan’s stagnant ranking to the ongoing persecution of opposition...

A group of Spanish experts will help Kazakhstan in exploring ground water in western Kazakhstan. The country’s Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation, Nurzhan Nurzhigitov, has successfully negotiated with Xcalibur Smart Mapping from Spain. The company, headquartered in Madrid, specializes in airborne and geophysical mapping and has representative offices worldwide, including Astana.

“This year, the two sides are set to conduct an airborne electromagnetic survey to compile maps and explore groundwater reserves in western Kazakhstan,” the agency wrote on Telegram.

According to the ministry, Nurzhigitov is also seeking a grant from the Spanish government to...

Kazakhstan’s government will limit the size of the targeted transfer from the National Fund, following multiple requests from the National Bank, which supervises the fund’s assets. The Ministry of National Economy has finally agreed with the financial regulator’s proposal and introduced concrete initiatives, according to Vice Minister of National Economy Azamat Amrin.

Every year, the cabinet resorts to assets from the National Fund to cover the state budget deficit through two types of transfers: guaranteed and targeted. A guaranteed transfer depends on the cut-off price for oil and has been set at $3.9 billion for the next three years. In...

Today, many people feel that we are living in an era of continuous, large-scale change. Timur Turlov, CEO of Freedom Finance, has observed how countries and industries are evolving rapidly, external relationships and dependencies are shifting, and traditional value chains are dismantled while new ones take shape. The global electronic distribution of products and services is challenging competition and national regulations. Multinational corporations are being replaced by global digital ecosystems. Meanwhile, products are becoming increasingly complex and companies’ profit centers are growing more elusive, a phenomenon that Timur Turlov frequently addresses in his market analyses and investment guidance.

Perhaps most...

According to Sungat Yessimkhanov, Kazakhstan’s deputy prime minister of energy, in 2024, the country spent approximately $199.6 million on electricity imported from Russia.

«We are talking about 100 billion tenge (approximately $199.6 million). We will provide a more precise figure later. We plan to reduce electricity imports from Russia, as we have effectively commissioned several new power plants. Our goal is to make our energy imports not to exceed two billion kilowatt-hours,» he said during a meeting with members of the Senate, the upper house of Kazakhstan’s parliament.

Yessimkhanov emphasized that by 2027, Kazakhstan will...

On Feb. 25, Alibek Kuantyrov, Kazakhstan’s deputy foreign minister, met with Nigeria’s Minister of Communication and Digital Economy Bosun Tijani to discuss the prospects of cooperation in space technologies, electronic government development and cutting-edge financial services. Kazakh officials also proposed that their Nigerian counterparts examine Kazakhstan’s digitalization practices and consider launching joint projects.  

Deputy Chair of Kazakh Invest Madiyar Sultanbek held talks with the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission on attracting foreign funds and also met with local financial officials. The Nigerian side expressed interest in Kazakhstan’s approach to managing state-owned corporations and financing large projects through special funds.

The...

Amazon Kuiper is anticipated to launch its satellite internet services in Kazakhstan next year. Meanwhile, the company is preparing to roll out commercial services across the country, as reported by Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Digital Development.

The ministry’s officials have already discussed a wide range of issues related to the deployment of the Kuiper network in Kazakhstan with representatives of Amazon.

«The new solution will provide high-speed internet access to regions where traditional network infrastructure operates inefficiently. Amazon is set to launch commercial services in Kazakhstan in 2026,» the agency said in a statement.

The ministry...

According to Kazakhstan’s Minister of Energy Almassadam Satkaliyev, the country is going to increase its oil exports from 68.6 million tons in 2024 to 70.5 million tons this year. This increase is anticipated against the backdrop of the implementation of the expansion projects at Tengiz, Kazakhstan’s largest oil and gas field.

«The plan is to export 70.5 million tons of oil in 2025,» he said during a briefing.

At the same time, oil production will also increase from 87.7 million tons last year to 96.2 million tons this year. The rise in production will be...

Freedom Finance Global has been researching Kazakhstan residents’ consumer confidence, inflation and devaluation expectations for the twenty-seventh month. January 2025 showed a significant decline at 93.2 points, which is the second lowest indicator for the entire research. Negative responses began to prevail over positive ones. The decline in optimism occurs in all aspects but is especially noticeable in the assessment of the economic situation. Inflation estimates also increased over the month amid rising prices for vegetables and fruits. On the other hand, inflation expectations remained at the same level, and devaluation expectations decreased amid the strengthening of the tenge since...

Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Justice is set to use artificial intelligence (AI) to protect the copyrights of creative professionals and help them receive royalties from Instagram, Minister Yerlan Sarsembayev announced at a recent cabinet meeting.

The issue of copyright protection gained attention after an incident in the fall of 2024 when musical works by Kazakhstani artists and composers were removed from Meta’s platform. Several artists and songwriters filed complaints with Meta, claiming they had not received royalties for their work.

«This incident exposed flaws in the field of collective rights management. As a result, we decided this...

A two-day meeting of Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) shareholders took place in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, from Feb. 25 to Feb. 26, where they discussed the Ukrainian drone attack on the facility.

In the late hours of Feb. 17, a group of Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) attacked the Kropotkinskaya oil pump station, the largest facility within the CPC. Notably, around 80% of the oil transported through the pipeline comes from Kazakhstan.

Transneft, the Russian shareholder of the CPC, called this strike an act of terrorism, stating that such attacks are unacceptable.

CTC General Director Nikolai Gorban reported...

Companies from the U.S., the European Union and China can bid for rights to Kazakhstan’s rare earth and rare metal deposits at government-held auctions, according to the country’s Minister of Industry and Construction Kanat Sharlapaev. Competition among major global players for these critical materials — essential for renewable energy, electric vehicles and dual-use goods — could help Kazakhstan generate more revenue.

«It is fair practice [to sell the rights to rare earth deposits to foreign companies at auctions]…  I support the auctioning of some deposits with proven reserves,» Sharlapaev said in response to an inquiry from...

TrustMe, an IT service developed in Kazakhstan, plans to expand its services worldwide, said the project’s CEO Chingiz Dauletbayev at a meeting with Kazakhstan’s cabinet members. Previously, the project was presented in Silicon Valley under the Hero Training acceleration program within other promising startups and attracted $1 million in investments from prominent venture investor Tim Draper.

TrustMe is a service designed for the instant signing of legal agreements via SMS, biometric verification and messengers such as WhatsApp, Telegram and eGov mobile. Documents signed with the service based on blockchain technologies are counterfeit-proof.

The project aims to enhance users’ confidence in...

Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Justice is planning to introduce «virtual autopsies» as an alternative to standard postmortem examinations, according to Yerlan Sarsembayev, the head of the agency. He announced the proposal during a recent cabinet meeting.

The procedure would use computed tomography (CT) scans instead of conventional autopsies, allowing bodies to remain largely intact. Sarsembayev noted that this approach could help address concerns related to national and religious traditions. The project has been launched in a pilot phase.

In a virtual autopsy, internal organs remain undisturbed while advanced imaging helps determine the cause of death.

The ministry also plans to reduce...