Kazakhstan’s local budget revenues jumped 19.4 percent in the first nine months of 2019 to a record 4.2 trillion tenge (US$10.89 billion). The revenue plan was exceeded in all regions of the country except the capital. Local budgets’ own revenues exceeded 120 billion tenge (US$311.12 million). Excluding transfers, the revenues totalled 1.8 trillion tenge (US$4.67 billion), 119 billion tenge (US$308.52 million) more than in the same period in 2018. Growth is mainly due to taxes, as tax revenues increased 7.5 percent to 1.7 trillion tenge (US$4.41 billion). The sale of fixed capital and non-tax revenues was 68.7 billion tenge (US$178.11 million) and 47.7 billion tenge (US$123.67 million), respectively.
Investments in fixed assets sourced from bank loans declined 64.4 percent from January-October to 227.3 billion tenge (US$589.30 million), falling for the first time in the past few years. The share of loans from foreign banks does not exceed 0.1 percent of Kazakhstan’s total capital investments. At the same time, investments in fixed assets through foreign bank loans totalled 9.3 billion tenge (US$24.11), 58.7 percent less year-on-year (yoy). Capital expenditures from foreign bank loans are declining for the second year in a row.
As of the end of September, tenge deposits represented 55.6 percent of all Kazakh bank deposits. The country’s bank deposits increased 4.2 percent year-on-year (yoy) to 8.8 trillion tenge (US$22.8 billion). The systematic growth of bank savings is accompanied by an increase in demand for the national currency, reported ranking.kz. Deposits have grown 15.5 percent in the past five years, which reflects an increase in the population’s well-being. This is also evident from other indicators, such as a 12-percent per year average wage increase in the third quarter to 191,100 tenge (US$495.40). Household incomes increased 10.7 percent in the second quarter to 579,000 tenge (US$1,501.10).
Kazakhstan has observed growth in industrial production for the second year in a row. Chemical industry products reached 386.4 billion tenge (US$1.00 billion) in the first ten months of 2019 and the industrial production index was 102.3 percent year-on-year (yoy). Ukraine leads all countries in importing Kazakh mineral and chemical fertilisers; the share of fertiliser exports to the country is 31.2 percent in quantitative terms and 32.2 percent in monetary terms. Kazakhstan exported more than 85,000 tonnes (19.3 percent increase yoy) of fertilisers worth in excess of $22 million, a 12.7-percent increase yoy).
Kazakhstan mined 92.8 million tonnes of coal, lignite and concentrated coal in the first ten months of the year, 2.5 percent less than 2018. The industry had experienced growth in the previous two years. Coal and lignite production reached 289.5 billion tenge (US$750.56 million), while the industrial production index was 97.2 percent. Coal prices by month increased most noticeably in Taldykorgan, Taraz and Turkestan. Retail prices in October averaged 12,600 tenge (US$32.70) per one tonne, 1.2 percent higher than in September, but 4 percent lower compared to October 2018.
Investments in financial and insurance activity fixed assets totalled 60.2 billion tenge (US$156.08 million) in the first nine months of 2019, a 38.7-percent increase year-on-year (yoy) and an all-time record indicator for the period. More than 99 percent of all capital investments, or 59.7 billion tenge (US$154.78 million), attracted to the segment are businesses’ own funds, a 39.3-percent increase yoy. Among other funding sources, bank loans grew 2.6 percent during the year to 432.8 million tenge (US$1.12 million). Financing from other borrowed funds decreased 32.6 percent to 112.8 million tenge (US$292,448).
