By the end of August 2026, residents of Kazakhstan had accumulated more than 30.5 trillion tenge in deposits and accounts at Kazakh banks, with over 80% of that sum held in tenge. Journalists note that deposits remain one of the most popular savings tools, since the interest rates offered by the country's second-tier banks are noticeably higher than inflation, according to infohub.kz.
According to the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the average market interest rate for individuals on deposits opened in August was 15.7%. For comparison, overall inflation stands at 9.8%. Rates have now fallen for three consecutive months — in July they averaged 15.9%, in June 16.2%, and in May 16.8% across the market. Nevertheless, some deposit products still offer rates of around 20%.
Even though bank deposits are becoming less lucrative for Kazakhstanis, their total volume continues to grow. According to the National Bank, individuals held about 30.5 trillion tenge in bank deposits in August. The sum rose 0.49% over the month and 17.33% over the year. Notably, the growth is driven mainly by tenge deposits, which increased 22.69% over the year to 24.7 trillion tenge, while foreign-currency deposits fell 0.94% to 5.9 trillion tenge. In other words, tenge deposits now account for more than 80% of all citizens' savings.
Most of those savings are held in term and non-term deposits — almost 24.4 trillion tenge. Another 3.6 trillion tenge or so sits in citizens' current accounts and demand deposits. Savings deposits held about 2.6 trillion tenge in August, while conditional deposits accounted for around 7.7 billion tenge.
So despite falling rates, deposit volumes continue to grow. At the same time, terms on foreign-currency deposits could improve in the future, making them more attractive to savers.