IMF Staff Country Reports

The 2024 Article IV Consultation discusses that after reaching 5.1 percent in 2023, Kazakhstan’s economic growth has remained robust in 2024, and inflation has continued to decline gradually. The banking sector remains resilient amid continued rapid consumer credit growth. In the medium term, growth is projected to stabilize at about 3½ percent, while inflation would ease. Recurrent fiscal underperformance requires measures to avoid fiscal procyclicality and strengthen the fiscal policy framework. Such measures would also help to meet the authorities’ objective of fiscal consolidation and maintain a balanced external position. Fiscal policy effectiveness also requires public sector data that are better aligned with international standards and a more rules-based and transparent policy framework, including by reducing off-budget spending and the continued reliance on discretionary transfers from the National Fund. Structural reform implementation remains slow, with the state footprint growing in some areas, while higher economic growth, diversification and resilience will be important in the current environment, including to address increasingly pressing challenges from climate change.