The Kazakh government invested 716 billion KZT (US$4.76 billion) to prop up the banking system, two-thirds of a planned bailout, leaving US$27 million in reserve.
The National Wellfare Fund Samruk-Kazyna, the primary conduit for the state’s economic anti-crisis program, has 364 billion KZT left to invest, of which 240 billion KZT will go into a real estate fund and 120 billion KZT for industrial and infrastructure projects, with 4 billion KZT left for “further measures the stabilize the financial sector.”
Prime Minister Karim Masimov announced a US$4 billion bank bailout in November, part of a planned 2.2 trillion KZT in state spending, almost a fifth of gross domestic product, to prevent the economy from contracting. The government will take US$10 billion from the National Oil Fund, created to guard against a decline in crude oil prices.
The government expects economic growth to slow to 1% this year after gross domestic product expanded 3.2 % in 2008 to 15.9 trillion KZT. Kazakhstan holds 3.2 % of the world’s oil reserves according to BP Plc.
The government’s financial-sector investments focused on the country’s four largest banks, which received 476 billion KZT, informed Samruk-Kazyna.
The fund deposited 212 billion KZT in BTA Bank, the country’s biggest lender, before using the money to acquire 75.1 % of the bank’s common shares.
