According to the latest data from the Bureau of National Statistics, the average salary in Kazakhstan reached a historic high of 486,388 tenge in the second quarter of 2026. However, due to inflation of 10.3% year-on-year, the real purchasing power of the average salary declined by 1.9%, reports infohub.kz.
Nominal growth was 5.4% for the quarter and 8.4% year-on-year. Yet in real terms, adjusted for price increases, the figure was negative. The rise in prices for goods and services in June reached 10.3% year-on-year, leading to a 1.8% decrease in real wages.
Among the 15 economic activities covered by the statistics, all saw nominal salary growth. However, real growth exceeding inflation was observed in only six sectors. The leader was agriculture, forestry, and fishing, with real growth of 6.4% year-on-year. The average salary here was 365,262 tenge, the lowest among sectors with positive dynamics. Within this sector, all sub-sectors showed robust growth: crop and livestock production (+6.5%), forestry and logging (+6.9%), and fishing and aquaculture posted an impressive +11.7%.
Significant real wage growth was also seen in construction (+5.9%, average salary 573,110 tenge) and in financial and insurance activities (+5.1%, average salary 1,107,576 tenge). In the financial sector, auxiliary activities for financial services and insurance stood out with a 25.5% increase, while workers in insurance, reinsurance, and pension funding (excluding compulsory social security) saw their salaries decline by 6.8%.
Real estate operations (+1.8%), other services (+1.7%), wholesale and retail trade, and repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (+1.5%), and industry (+0.9%) finished the quarter slightly above inflation.
The remaining nine economic activities, despite nominal growth, lost some purchasing power in real terms. The biggest losses were suffered by education workers: real decline of 6.5% against nominal growth of just 3.2%. The average salary in this sector is 385,725 tenge. Particularly hard hit were workers in secondary (-8.1%) and primary (-8%) education.
Among the laggards were also arts, entertainment, and recreation (-6.3%, average salary 312,136 tenge), and information and communication (-6%, average salary 851,076 tenge). In the information sector, only publishing activities (+2.7%, average salary 728,130 tenge) and motion picture, video, television program production, music, and sound recording (+91.8%, average salary 770,257 tenge) showed positive dynamics.
Professional, scientific, and technical activities also failed to outpace inflation: real decline of 5% with an average salary of 655,277 tenge. Only legal and accounting workers (+0.9%, average salary 751,200 tenge) and specialists in professional, scientific, and technical fields (+3.7%, average salary 571,412 tenge) were in the black.
Thus, more than half of the economic activities covered in the Bureau of National Statistics report showed real wage growth lagging behind inflation in Kazakhstan.