Billions Sent Abroad: Where Kazakhstan’s Money Transfers Go

Kazakhstan residents sent three times more money abroad than they received from January through May 2026. Outgoing transfers reached 238 billion tenge, compared with 78.1 billion tenge received, Orda.kz reports, citing Ranking.kz.

The figures cover transactions made through international money transfer systems.

Outgoing transfers fell by 7.2% from a year earlier, while incoming transfers dropped by 9.9%. Compared with the same period in 2022, when transfers abroad reached 391.4 billion tenge, outflows have declined by almost 40%.

Uzbekistan ranked second with 50.2 billion tenge, down 26.7%, followed by Turkey with 38.7 billion, down 22.7%. Kazakhstan residents also sent 15.6 billion tenge to Georgia, 7.5 billion to Kyrgyzstan and 5.9 billion to China.

Russia was also the largest source of incoming transfers, sending 17.9 billion tenge to Kazakhstan. It was followed by the United States with 13.2 billion, Turkey with 9.7 billion, Uzbekistan with eight billion and Germany with 6.2 billion.

The gap between outgoing and incoming transfers continues to widen. Kazakhstan residents sent 2.2 times more money abroad than they received in 2022 and 2.5 times more in 2023. The ratio has now reached three to one.

Original author: Eva Golovintseva

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