Kazakhstanis continue to spend money actively, and trade remains one of the economy's drivers. However, official statistics show such unusual figures that analysts doubt they match reality. The regional differentiation in retail trade per capita is reported by the website Orda.kz.
Experts call the differentiation inadequate. According to 2025 data, the average Kazakhstani contributed 1.36 million tenge in retail turnover — 16.3% more than a year earlier. However, regional gaps are enormous: in Almaty the figure reached 4.08 million tenge per person (almost triple the national average), in Astana 2.24 million, in East Kazakhstan Region 2.21 million, in Karaganda Region 1.64 million. Meanwhile, in Turkestan Region only 260,900 tenge per capita was recorded, in Zhambyl Region 496,800, in Ulytau Region 553,100, and in Zhetysu Region 584,100 tenge.
“However, looking closer at the data, it becomes clear that official statistics show an inadequate regional differentiation. Based on this information, in Shymkent retail spending per person is more than four times higher than in the neighboring Turkestan Region, in Astana almost nine times, and in Almaty a whopping 16 times,” says Energyprom analytics.
Part of the gap is explainable: the largest retail chains and malls are concentrated in Almaty and Astana, drawing shoppers from other regions. However, such a large difference raises questions. It is possible that official statistics mainly capture sales with cash receipts and reported transactions, while some trade in certain regions remains off the books.
Against this backdrop, overall trade figures look robust. In the first half of 2026, total trade turnover in Kazakhstan reached 36.2 trillion tenge, with physical volume up 5.7%. Wholesale trade was the main contributor: its volume increased by 6.6% to 24.5 trillion tenge. Nearly 80% of turnover came from non-food products and industrial goods. The leaders in wholesale trade volume were Almaty (35.2%), Atyrau Region (14.9%), Astana (14.3%), and Karaganda Region (5.5%).