Kazakhstan Economic Statistics

Silvia Andreoletti

Silvia is a Reporter at Trade Finance Global. She is also currently finishing her BA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at New College, Oxford, with a focus on financial markets, game theory, and international relations.

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Exporting to Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan’s main imports are cars and car parts, medicines, and textiles; more than half its imports come from Russia and China, while the remainder are from Western Europe and South Korea. Kazakhstan is the largest economy in Central Asia, its growth largely driven by oil and gas production and export; it has a growing working age population due to a high birth rate and immigration from neighbouring Central Asian countries. 

Kazakhstan’s attempts to diversify its economy away from oil have driven it to closer collaboration with China, which is financing a number of infrastructure projects in the country and has recently surpassed Russia to become Kazakhstan’s largest import source. Kazakhstan is part of the Eurasian Economic Union along with Russia, Armenia, Belarus, and Kyrgyzstan: the union allows free trade of goods and services between members and promotes collaboration and a unified economic policy. Membership to the Union has led to increased exports to other Central Asian countries, boosting non-oil revenue. 

Kazakhstan is a stable democratic country and one of the most important players in the Central Asian region, with close diplomatic and economic connections to the West as well as to Russia and China. Its strong economy, with one of the highest GDPs of former Soviet republics, is friendly to foreign investment and trade and attracts much attention from EU as well as Chinese investors. 

The Kazakh economy has been affected by floods in spring 2024 which have destroyed much of the country’s agricultural and livestock production and decreased demand in some areas. The country has remained resilient to shocks caused by the war in Ukraine so far, but if relations with Russia worsen, imports could be severely impacted, leading Kazakhstan to seek alternative trading partners. Russia is the source for much of Kazakhstan’s electricity as well as goods from base metals to food and consumer goods: the war has raised prices for many of these, leading to some inflation and fears of shortages if Russia were to restrict its own exports. Kazakhstan’s exports to Russia rose significantly after the start of the war, leading to suspicions that Russia is using Kazakhstan to evade sanctions by using the latter as a transshipment hub for banned Western goods.

Exporting to Kazakhstan: What is trade finance?

Due to the high volume of its exports, Kazakhstan has been named as the 48th largest exported worldwide. Moreover, the country’s exports has been steadily increasing at an annualized rate of 3.7%.
Considered top exports of Kazakhstan are crude petroleum ($50 billion), petroleum gas ($4 billion), refined petroleum (around $4 billion), and refined copper ($3 billion), radioactive chemicals ($2.4 billion).

Kazakhstan also signed the Caspian Consortium Agreement in December 1996 which involves the construction of a new pipeline from the Tengiz Field to the Black Sea. Such project would increase that prospects of larger oil exportation in the coming years.

The top export destinations of Kazakhstan are China ($14 B), the Netherlands ($8 B), Italy ($6 B), Russia ($5.9 B) and France ($5.8 B).

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