Dear Valued Members, 

Kazakhstan Newsline would like to wish you and your families a great long weekend and Happy Nauryz! 

Due to the holiday, the next edition of the Kazakhstan Newsline daily digest will be published Tuesday, March 26, 2019. 

The Kazakhstan Newsline Team

Murat Temirkhanov, the acting chairman of the board of Halyk Finance, believes that economic growth will slow down in 2019 and 5% GDP growth predicted by the government is unlikely. He stated this speaking at the round table under the title Debt Market of Kazakhstan, held in Almaty

"For 2019, our...

The volume of investigations and security services in Kazakhstan for 2018 amounted to 223.2 billion tenge, which is 17.7% more than in 2017.

The greatest demand for such services was recorded in Almaty for 60.5 billion tenge, and Astana for 41.8 billion tenge. On the third place is Atyrau region with...

President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev has dismissed Ambassador of Kazakhstan to Uzbekistan Erik Utembaev, Akorda press service reports.

Utembaev was suspended in office in October 2018 on embezzlement suspicion.

On October 16, 2018, the National Counter-CorruptionBureau said the Ambassador of Kazakhstan to Uzbekistan was suspected of large-scale appropriation of public budget funds.

Erik...

Shymkent city officials briefed Kazakh Prime Minister Askar Mamin March 16 on the city’s project to accelerate its comprehensive development and construction plan.

The acceleration effort and the development plan through 2023 seek to create new jobs, develop small and medium-sized businesses, improve the quality of public services and address social...

The decisions have been published on the website Akorda.

“To appoint Abai Bisembayev as assistant to the First President of Kazakhstan – Elbasy and first deputy head of the Presidential Affairs Office of Kazakhstan,” the decision says.

In addition, by the decision of the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan –...

Energy Minister Kanat Bozumbayev took part in the meeting of the OPEC + joint ministerial monitoring committee held in Baku on March 17-18. Kazakhstan assured the meeting participants of their intention to fulfil the plan to reduce production in the first six months of 2019," a press service of the...

The Atyrau Refinery will build new treatment plants, the press service of the enterprise reported. “This year we are launching the TAZALYQ project, that is, we will build new sewage treatment plants. It must be admitted that the existing cleaning system is obsolete and technically worn out. We studied the...

Kazakhstan’s benchmark Urals crude’s differentials in northwest Europe softened on Tuesday in a deal, while demand for April-loading cargoes was still strong, traders said.

They expect Urals crude provisional loading plan for April 1-10 to emerge on Wednesday.

In the Platts window, Trafigura sold to BP 100,000 tonnes of Urals loading from...

Oil prices were little changed after hitting 2019 highs on Tuesday, maintaining recent strength on the back of expectations for OPEC to continue production cuts.

U.S. oil prices have climbed 9 percent in the last six weeks, as the supply cuts are now expected to continue through the rest of 2019....

British wholesale gas prices picked up from 18-month lows on Tuesday, as an unplanned outage reduced supplies slightly from Norway and buyers braced for a potential impact of labour strikes due at some platforms.

The within-day gas price rose 0.75 pence to 38.75 p/therm by 0850 GMT.

The day-ahead price had yet...

In the last quarter of last year, the average monthly wages of Kazakhstani people already amounted to 176.1 thousand tenge, 7.5% more than in the same period a year earlier. Wage growth overtakes inflation, the purchasing power increased by 2.2% on-year. The wages fund in the fourth quarter of last...

As of March 13, 2019, 33,121 taxpayers repaid the amount of arrears, registered as of October 1, 2018, for a total of 7.2 billion tenge. This was reported by the press service of the State Revenue Committee of the Ministry of Finance of Kazakhstan.

"As part of the ongoing tax amnesty,...

The Damu Fund issued the first subsidy to the Merke cheese factory in the Zhambyl region under the program of affordable lending to priority projects. The rate of remuneration will be 14.95%, of which 6.95% is subsidised by the state. The loan amount is 16 million tenge for a period...

On March 12, 2019 in New York, Global Finance magazine announced its 26th annual award ceremony for the best banks in the world.

Global Finance annually conducts research and selects the best financial institutions in more than 150 countries, based on the criteria of dynamic growth, development and implementation of innovative...

The Kazakh Finance Ministry State Revenue Committee is testing an electronic submission system for unified declaration of individuals’ income and property to be introduced beginning in 2020 to reduce shadow economy and corruption. The committee reduced the declaration’s volume, corrected taxpayer information discrepancies in government databases and implemented tax deductions...

Based on results of trades on the spot-market:

- weighted average US dollar rate with settlements T+1 in tenge (USDKZT_TOМ) made up KZT376.49 per US dollar at the trades volume of USD94,039 th.;

- on US dollar with settlements Т+0 and T+2 in tenge no deals were made; at the session close...

The Japanese yen rose on Tuesday, benefiting from a U.S. dollar hit by concern over the U.S. economy and expectations that the Federal Reserve will prove accommodative at a meeting this week.

The euro also profited from the weaker dollar, adding 0.2 percent to $1.1348.

Markets expect the Fed to strike a...

Palladium surged to a record on Tuesday as the risk of a ban on some Russian exports added to supply concerns for the autocatalyst metal, while gold rose on expectations the U.S. Federal Reserve will stay dovish at its meeting this week.

Spot palladium was up 0.2 percent at $1,586.92 an...

Aluminium touched a three-month peak on Tuesday after major producer Norsk Hydro was hit by a cyber attack, causing its giant smelters to switch to manual operation and some extrusion plants to be shut.

Other industrial metals also gained ground on optimism about easy monetary policy ahead of a U.S. central...

In three years, almost 80% of Russian certificates for cement from Russia are recognised in Kazakhstan illegally, the press service of Atameken NCE reported. “Previously, the business community of Kazakhstan repeatedly raised the issue of unlawful recognition of Russian certificates. Only for cement in 2016-2018, 161 certificates were issued for...

An important time for active preparation for the sowing campaign-2019 is coming in Kazakhstan. Farmers check and, if necessary, repair equipment, stock up fuel and lubricants, fertilisers and herbicides. A considerable part of the worries and financial costs are issues of seed procurement. Quality seeds remain one of the main pillars of good grain yield. But this year the level of stocks of seeds of grain crops on March 1 is the lowest for the last 5 years.

Grain reserves at the beginning of the new year are recorded at the rate of 14,465,559 tonnes and reduced over the month by 1,328,793 tonnes or 8.4%. As of February 1 of this year, 11,867,608 tonnes of grain were recorded in Kazakhstan, and reserves fell by 2,597,951 tonnes or 18%. By March 1, grain stocks amounted to 10,277,759 tonnes and decreased in February by 1,589,849 tonnes or by 13.4%.

The seeds in the grain balance as of March 1, 2019 amounted to 1,599,381 tonnes. Their number decreased in January by 34,998 tonnes or by 2.2% from the beginning of the current year. In February, seeds increased by 26,944 tonnes or 1.7%. However, this year the seed is less than last year by 72.5 thousand tonnes, against 1,671,887 tonnes in 2018.

Kazakhstan continues to implement a program to diversify grain areas, primarily for wheat. Perhaps, taking into account their next reduction, the volume of seeds for the upcoming sowing season will be enough. But one cannot count on the fact that the yield of grain crops will grow steadily, and, due to this, the yields will remain at a stable level, despite the reduction in the area. You cannot disregard the climatic factors and changing market conditions. This was shown by January of this year, when the regional market was significantly eased by Kazakhstan's barns, and prices soared significantly.

Kazakhstan wheat and barley remain in demand on the world market, but it is needed to pay more attention and effort to improve the quality of the product, logistics and work with potential buyers.

By Sergey Bukatov for Kazakh Zerno.

Stocks of grain crops as of March 1, 2015-19

Currently, an integrated development plan for the engineering industry of Kazakhstan for 2019-2030 is being developed. This is reported in the response of the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Askar Mamin to the request of a group of deputies from the Ak Zhol party.

"The comprehensive plan includes the development of various...

Chicago wheat futures edged higher on Tuesday as short-covering by investors supported the market, although lacklustre demand for U.S. supplies kept a lid on the market.

Corn and soybeans eased for a second consecutive session.

The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board Of Trade was up 0.2 percent at $4.57-1/2 a...

In two months of 2019, the revenues of air transport enterprises reached 49.7 billion tenge, by 21.2% more than in the same period last year. The share of air transport in the transport industry as a whole amounted to 10.8%. In 2018, the share of airlines was slightly lower at...

Negotiations were held between representatives of Kazakhtelecom and minority shareholders, who made demands to repurchase shares in connection with their disagreement with the decision of the Board of Directors to conclude a major transaction, that is acquisition of 75% of shares of Kcell.

During the negotiations with the participation of independent...

When Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Finance probed a slowdown in processing speed of its computers in February, they found unusual culprits. The ministry’s own IT specialists had secretly installed software on its information processing systems to profit from mining, or encrypting and decrypting, cryptocurrencies – inadvertently also shining a light on...

In 2018, 1.2 trillion tenge was invested in housing construction from all sources. This is higher than the level of 2017 by 8.1%. The Minister of Industry and Infrastructure Development of Kazakhstan Roman Sklyar reported about this at a meeting of the government.

He clarified that for each tenge of public...

This was reported by the press service of Akorda.

By Decrees of the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev:

Malik Murzalin relieved of his post as akim of Akmola region, appointed deputy head of the Presidential Administration of the Republic of Kazakhstan;

Yermek Marzhikpayev was appointed akim of Akmola region;

Kairat Kozhamzharov was appointed deputy...

The years-long standoff between the Taliban and the Afghan authorities has made itself felt in the post-Soviet area, knocking on Turkmenistan’s door. Tensions flared up when the Taliban attacked checkpoints on the Afghan-Turkmen border in the Badghis province. The incident has made it clear that the Taliban is searching for...

China will take an array of measures to support foreign trade this year amid increased uncertainty, a senior official said Monday.

The country's foreign trade development is facing a more complicated and severe environment with greater uncertainty and more risks and challenges, Assistant Commerce Minister Ren Hongbin told a national conference...

China Telecom, a leading mobile operator in China, reported a 13.9-percent year-on-year increase in net profits in 2018, the company announced Tuesday.

Profits attributable to equity holders totaled 21.2 billion yuan ($3.2 billion) last year, with basic earnings per share standing at 0.26 yuan, according to a company statement.

Operating revenue was...

Deep differences between the economic policies of Beijing and Moscow have become evident after Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang’s program was translated into Russian. Russia’s authorities set artificial restrictions to limit consumer demand, increase taxes and cut state expenditures, while the Chinese government pursues a policy route that is the...

The Russian rouble dipped slightly on Tuesday, moving away from seven-month highs, after Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev announced his resignation.

The rouble had received a boost this week from higher oil prices and month-end tax payments that spurred an increased conversion of foreign currency by Russian export-focused companies in order to...

The rapid development of technology in the modern world, offers wide opportunities for developing environmentally friendly and inexhaustible energy resources.

Azerbaijan produced goods and services in the amount of 368.8 million manats ($217.01 million) in production, distribution and supply of electricity, gas and steam in January-February 2019.

According to the State Statistics...

Date: March 20, 2019; Source: Bloomberg.com

Energy

Precious and Industrial Metals

Agriculture

Date: March 20, 2019; Source: the National Bank of Kazakhstan