ASTANA – The Kazakh government has significantly increased budget spending on social assistance and security this year while achieving an overall decrease in budget expenses compared to 2017.
Photo credit: southeusummit.com.
State budget expenditures totalled 6.2 trillion tenge (US$17.12 billion) from January-July. The figure is 18.8 percent less than the approximately 7.7 trillion tenge (US$21.26 billion) spent during the same period last year, according to data from the Ministry of Finance.
The budget was allocated similarly to the previous year, but with more focus and increased spending in priority areas. Significant growth was recorded in social assistance and security (19.5 percent or 1.6 trillion tenge (US$ 4.42 billion)), debt service (38.7 percent or 407.1 billion tenge (US$1.12 billion)) and defence expenses (28.1 percent or 300.5 billion tenge (US$829.84 million)).
Approximately 1.1 trillion tenge (US$3.04 billion), or a 6.2-percent increase, was allocated for education, while healthcare had a 0.9-percent growth of 658.1 billion tenge (US$1.82 billion) compared to the previous year.
A remarkable decrease in expenses was observed in budget transfers (-44.7 percent) and others (-95.5 percent).
Budget expenditures reduced by 1.4 trillion tenge (US$3.87 billion) compared to the previous year. During the past five years, state budget expenditures gradually grew at nearly 10 percent from 2013, reaching a peak of 7.7 trillion tenge (51.6-percent growth) in 2017.
