Russia's share of Kazakhstan's remittances rises to 41%

July 24, 2026 at 06:12 PM1 min

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

Kazakhstan's outward remittances via money transfer systems fell 7.2% year-on-year to 238 billion tenge in January-May 2026, according to the National Bank. Transfers to Russia rose 15.8% to 97.8 billion tenge, increasing Russia's share from 32.9% to 41.1%.

Remittance Flows by Country

Uzbekistan remained the second-largest destination with 50.2 billion tenge, down 26.7% year-on-year. Transfers to Turkey fell 22.7% to 38.7 billion tenge. The combined decline in transfers to Uzbekistan and Turkey totaled 29.7 billion tenge, while flows to Russia increased by 13.4 billion tenge. Uzbekistan's share dropped to 21.1%, Turkey's to 16.3%, with the top three destinations accounting for 78.5% of all outward transfers.

Inward vs. Outward Flows

Inward remittances to Kazakhstan totaled 78.1 billion tenge in January-May 2026, down 9.9% year-on-year. The ratio of outward to inward transfers has widened to 3:1, up from 2.2:1 in 2022 and 2.5:1 in 2023. The gap reflects a sustained net outflow of funds through money transfer systems.

Comparison with 2022 Peak

Outward transfers in January-May 2022 reached 391.4 billion tenge, 39.2% higher than the current period. Inward flows have fallen 2.3-fold from 178.8 billion tenge in 2022. Compared to January-May 2016, outward transfers grew 88.9%, while inward flows were 8.8% lower.