President of Kazakhstan Qasym-Jomart Toqaev received Chairman of the National Bank Timur Suleimenov, who reported on the results of monetary policy implementation for January-July 2026, reports infohub.kz.
Timur Suleimenov informed the head of state about the economic situation, business activity, inflation factors, and measures taken to stabilize prices. Annual inflation has been declining for the tenth consecutive month, reaching 10.2% in July. This is supported by the ongoing monetary policy, the strengthening of the tenge exchange rate, stabilization of consumer activity, as well as a set of coordinated anti-inflationary measures by the Government and the National Bank.
The Chairman of the National Bank also reported on the dynamics of lending to the economy. The loan portfolio of banks for business loans as of July 1, 2026, increased by 17.1% year-on-year, while lending to small and medium-sized businesses accelerated to 29.6%. At the same time, consumer lending growth slowed from 21.0% at the beginning of the year to 13.0%, indicating the effectiveness of the prudential measures taken and the normalization of consumer lending rates. Thus, credit resources are being redistributed in favor of business financing.
In addition, Timur Suleimenov reported on the situation in the foreign exchange market, the state of assets of the National Fund and the Unified Accumulative Pension Fund (UAPF), as well as the country's gold and foreign exchange reserves. As of July 1 of this year, the total volume of the National Fund and international reserves amounted to $127.3 billion. The investment income of the National Fund for the first half of this year reached $2.3 billion. Pension assets of the UAPF amounted to 27.8 trillion tenge, increasing by 1.7 trillion tenge since the beginning of the year.
To develop the financial ecosystem of Alatau City, the National Bank has developed measures aimed at the rapid and flexible movement of capital, as well as attracting investment in the development of the city.
The Chairman of the National Bank presented information on the implementation of the President's instructions on the development of the digital financial assets industry and the National Digital Financial Infrastructure. New directions include the use of stablecoins for cross-border payments, infrastructure development, and the issuance of tokenized government assets. A new segment of the payment market has also been introduced - licensed payment organizations of the first category. This will stimulate competition, reduce customer costs, and expand the availability of digital innovative services for the population and businesses.
Within the framework of the National Payment System, since July 19, QR payments and transfers by phone number between clients of any banks have been launched. Since the launch, 6.5 million transactions worth 170 billion tenge have been processed in the system.
The National Bank is taking all necessary measures to ensure price stability and achieve the medium-term inflation target of 5%. The President set a number of tasks for the National Bank's activities and emphasized the importance of further stabilizing inflation.