Participants in the National Bank of Kazakhstan's macroeconomic survey expect the country's inflation to reach 9.5% by the end of 2026. In August, they projected 10%. Estimates for the next two years also declined, according to the results of the October survey, infohub.kz reports.
For 2027, experts lowered their inflation forecast from 8.5% to 8.3%, and for 2028 from 7% to 6.9%. The most notable revision concerned the current year: down 0.5 percentage points.
"Analysts' inflation forecasts have been lowered across the entire forecast horizon," the National Bank said.
The figures reflect the expected growth in consumer prices in December compared with December of the previous year. Thus, the 2026 forecast means that at the end of the year, goods and services will be on average 9.5% more expensive than a year earlier.
The survey involved 14 organizations engaged in analyzing and forecasting Kazakhstan's economy. The National Bank emphasized that the published estimates belong to market participants and are not the regulator's own forecast.
Earlier, Kursiv wrote that in the August survey, experts had instead worsened their expectations for the coming years. The inflation forecast for 2027 was then raised from 7.8% to 8.5%, and for 2028 from 6.8% to 7%. The estimate for 2026 was kept at 10%.
Meanwhile, actual annual inflation in Kazakhstan slowed to 9.3% in September from 9.8% in August. According to the Bureau of National Statistics, food prices rose 8.5% over the year, non-food products by 11%, and paid services by 8.9%. In September alone, consumer prices rose 0.6%.