Budgetary performance seemingly improved in May

KAZAKHSTAN - In Brief 13 Jun 2023 by Evgeny Gavrilenkov

---

Kazakhstan’s Deputy PM and Finance Minister, Mr. Erulan Zhamaubaev, reported at a government meeting today that the country’s state budget (i.e., the republican and local budgets combined) was in decent shape as in 5M23 it accumulated “over KZT8.0 trln of revenues” which appeared about 3% over the 5M23 plan. The speaker also mentioned that the republican budget revenues reached KZT5.4 trln while the consolidated local budget revenues reached KZT2.6 trln (nearly KZT0.6 trln or 28.9% over the 5M plan). It looks as though he meant only own revenues of the budgets, i.e., excluding transfers (from the National fund or intra-budgetary). If so, then in May alone, tax revenues of the republican budget accounted for about KZT1.5 trln, as in 4M23, they reached KZT3.9 trln. In February, they reached KZT1.4 trln. In March and April, revenues varied between KZT0.7 trln and KZT0.8 trln. We expected some improvement in the revenue flow as some taxes are paid quarterly. Mr. Zhamaubaev mentioned that in 5M23, the republican budget allocated 98.8 % of the plan, meaning that spending was relatively smooth, and in recent months the republican budget expenditures fluctuated around KZT1.8 trln. Even though the Minister didn’t say anything about the size of transfers and some other smaller expenditure items, such as net budgetary crediting, at a glance, it looks as though the republican budget may have been in surplus last month implying a narrower deficit in 5M23 relative to 4M23 (assuming the usual monthly amounts of transfers from the National Fund). Even though the Ministry will publish detailed budget execution statistics at the end of this month, the numbers quoted by Mr. Zhamaubaev hi...