ASTANA – Kazakhstan’s National Fund is increasingly generating income not only from the country’s oil sector but also from the capital accumulated over years of resource revenues, with investment returns in the first half of 2026 coming close to the amount raised through oil-sector taxes, Kazakh economist Ruslan Sultanov writes in his Telegram channel, analyzing Kazakhstan’s national statistics.
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The National Fund received 3.21 trillion tenge (US$7.1 billion) in the first six months of 2026. Oil-sector taxes accounted for 55.6% of total inflows, while investment income reached 43.7%.
The figures point to an important shift in the role of the fund: as its accumulated assets grow, returns generated by investing those assets can become a source of income comparable in scale to current revenues from the oil sector.
Capital itself is becoming a source of income
The 1.4 trillion tenge (US$3.13 billion) investment return exceeded the revenue generated by any individual oil-sector tax during the period.
The largest individual oil-related contribution was corporate income tax from the oil sector, which amounted to 798.9 billion tenge (US$1.78 billion). The mineral extraction tax generated 267.2 billion tenge (US$596.6 million), while the rent tax on exports brought in 172.5 billion tenge (US$385.1 million).
Against these figures, the investment return of 1.4 trillion tenge (US$3.13 billion) represents a separate and increasingly significant source of resources for the National Fund, according to Sultanov. The scale of the underlying capital is central to this development. The fund’s assets stood at 37.34 trillion tenge (US$83.9 billion) at the beginning of 2026.
The investment income generated during the first six months was equivalent to approximately 3.8% of that starting capital. This means that even a relatively modest percentage return on a very large asset base can translate into hundreds of billions or trillions of tenge.
The fund financed the budget while its capital grew
The National Fund simultaneously continued to perform its traditional fiscal role during the first half of the year. A total of 1.87 trillion tenge (US$4.05 billion) was used from the fund, of which 1.86 trillion tenge (US$4.03 billion) went to the national budget as a guaranteed transfer.
At the same time, the fund’s capital, Sultanov writes, increased from 37.34 trillion (US$80.88 billion) to 38.68 trillion tenge (US$83.80 billion). The combination is significant: despite the transfer to the budget, the fund’s capital increased during the period. Investment income played an important role in that outcome.
From oil revenues to an asset-based model
The National Fund was created to accumulate part of Kazakhstan’s natural-resource revenues and provide a financial buffer for the economy. Its traditional role has therefore been closely associated with oil: when hydrocarbon revenues rise, the fund receives more money; when the economy requires support, part of those savings can be transferred to the budget.
The latest figures illustrate another dimension of that model. Once the fund reaches a sufficiently large asset base, the accumulated capital itself begins to generate significant income. The source of that income is therefore no longer directly tied to the production or taxation of another barrel of oil.
That distinction matters for the long-term role of sovereign savings. Oil revenues are linked to production volumes, commodity prices, export conditions and the fiscal regime. Investment income, meanwhile, depends on the size and composition of the portfolio, asset performance and the quality of asset management. As the capital base expands, the second factor becomes increasingly important.
