In 2027, spending on servicing the government debt from the republican budget may exceed combined spending on education and healthcare. These parameters are set in the draft law "On the Republican Budget for 2027–2029," reports infohub.kz.
According to the document, 3.561 trillion tenge is proposed for servicing the government debt next year. For comparison, expenditures under the functional group "Healthcare" will amount to 2.673 trillion tenge, and education is allocated another 857.7 billion tenge.
Thus, education and healthcare together will cost the republican budget 3.530 trillion tenge. Debt service will be about 30.4 billion tenge, or 0.9%, more expensive.
It should be noted that these are expenditures of the republican budget under the respective functional groups. This amount does not include all spending on schools, hospitals, and other social facilities financed from local budgets.
In the following two years, according to the draft, the situation will change. In 2028, about 3.676 trillion tenge is planned for debt service, while spending on education and healthcare together will reach approximately 3.935 trillion tenge. In 2029, the corresponding figures will be about 3.650 trillion and 3.982 trillion tenge.
It is worth noting that the excess of debt service costs over education and healthcare spending is not new for the 2027 budget. In the current budget for 2026–2028, for the same 2027, 4.19 trillion tenge was allocated for servicing the government debt, while education and healthcare together received 3.19 trillion tenge. The gap exceeded 1 trillion tenge. In the new draft budget, debt service costs have been revised down to 3.56 trillion tenge, while combined education and healthcare spending has been increased to 3.53 trillion tenge. As a result, the difference has narrowed to 30.4 billion tenge.
The growing debt service burden is already evident. As Kursiv previously reported, in the first half of 2026, Kazakhstan spent 2.1 trillion tenge on these purposes, up 26.3% year-on-year. Meanwhile, the state debt itself grew much slower, by 14.7%, to 40.9 trillion tenge. Debt service accounted for about 11% of all budget expenditures, compared to 9.6% a year earlier.
Analysts at the Analytical Center of the Association of Financiers of Kazakhstan explained the faster growth in spending not only by the increase in the volume of liabilities but also by the higher cost of new borrowings amid high interest rates. In addition, as the use of National Fund assets decreases, the budget relies more on market debt financing, which is more expensive for the state.