Kazakhstan Finance Ministry shifts debt mix toward foreign-currency bonds

August 25, 2026 at 08:59 AM2 min

This digest was compiled by AI from multiple sources — links to the originals are below.

Foreign-currency bonds placed on Kazakhstan's stock exchanges accounted for 47% of Ministry of Finance bond placements in 2025 and the first eight months of 2026. The ministry's foreign-currency placements have reached 38% in recent years. The shift marks a transformation from an almost entirely tenge-denominated market to one mixing tenge, dollar, and yuan.

Key Facts

Foreign-currency bonds placed on Kazakhstan's stock exchanges accounted for 47% of Ministry of Finance bond placements in 2025 and the first eight months of 2026.
The Ministry of Finance's foreign-currency placements have reached 38% in recent years.
Total debt placements on KASE and AIX exceeded 26 trillion tenge in 2025, down 26% from 2024.
Ministry of Finance government securities placements totaled 6.6 trillion tenge in 2025, accounting for 25% of all market placements.
Short-term National Bank notes accounted for 6.6 trillion tenge, or 25% of total placements, in 2025.

Currency Structure Shift

Foreign-currency bonds placed on Kazakhstan's stock exchanges accounted for 47% of Ministry of Finance bond placements in 2025 and the first eight months of 2026. The Ministry of Finance's foreign-currency placements have reached 38% in recent years. Until 2023, up to 80% of all debt placements on Kazakhstan's stock exchanges by nominal value were tenge-denominated. The market has transformed from an almost entirely tenge-denominated market to one mixing tenge, dollar, and yuan.

Market Issuance Volume

Total debt placements on KASE and AIX exceeded 26 trillion tenge in 2025, down 26% from 2024. Short-term National Bank notes accounted for 6.6 trillion tenge, or 25% of total placements, in 2025. The volume of National Bank notes in circulation has generally ranged between 0.5 and 1.0 trillion tenge in recent years, reaching 1.7 trillion tenge in some months of 2026. The National Bank increased the limit on monthly notes to 1.0 trillion tenge and began issuing 3-month notes with a limit of 0.5 trillion tenge from the start of 2026.

Issuer Breakdown

Ministry of Finance government securities placements totaled 6.6 trillion tenge in 2025, accounting for 25% of all market placements. Quasi-state companies accounted for 26% of placements in 2025, private corporate sector 21%, and international financial organizations 2%. The Ministry of Finance has historically been the second-largest issuer by turnover and the most significant issuer on Kazakhstan's debt securities market.