Kazakhstan: Rules on Government Bond Issuance Tightened After Audit Flags Risk

The Ministry of Finance of Kazakhstan has tightened rules for issuing government securities following an audit that revealed possible overspending risks amounting to tens of billions of tenge, Orda.kz reports.

The Supreme Audit Chamber instructed the Ministry to revise its approach to domestic borrowing, aiming to increase oversight and improve the efficiency of the national budget. The move follows a review of the Treasury Committee’s operations.

According to auditors, in 2021–2023, the Finance Ministry exceeded its planned issuance of securities in several months, despite the presence of a positive balance in budget accounts. These actions, the auditors warned, could have led to more than 124 billion tenge in unnecessary losses.

As a result, the Supreme Audit Chamber issued a directive to overhaul internal procedures. On May 30, 2025, Finance Minister Madi Takiyev signed an order introducing stricter rules.

Under the new regulation, additional issuances of securities will only be allowed under substantiated conditions, not simply because extra funds are available.

As of July 1, Kazakhstan’s public debt stood at 31.9 trillion tenge — an increase of 40 billion tenge since the beginning of the year. Takiyev attributed the rise to the need to finance the budget deficit and cover earlier borrowings.

In June, the Ministry placed $2.5 billion worth of Eurobonds on the market. Officials said the placement was done to refinance external debt without increasing its overall size.

Original Author: Ruslan Loginov