Kazakhstan to tap sovereign fund for $4.1 billion

ALMATY: Kazakhstan will tap its $60 billion rainy-day National Fund for an extra 1.825 trillion tenge ($4.1 billion) this year, Information Minister Dauren Abayev said on Sunday.

The 67 per cent increase in the annual transfer will help finance Kazakhstan’s $10 billion stimulus package aimed at softening the blow from the coronavirus outbreak and the plunge in the price of oil, the Central Asian nation’s main export.

The Nur-sultan government is redrafting its 2020 budget and has locked down six major cities, including the capital, in an attempt to slow the spread of the virus. Lockdown in oil industry hub Atyrau was the latest, also announced on Sunday.

It plans to direct the stimulus money towards infrastructure projects that will help reduce unemployment and subsidies for sectors that have been hit hardest by the coronavirus outbreak and oil price shocks, as well as welfare payouts.

Meanwhile the Eurasian commission, which unites the customs zones of Russia and Kazakhstan, has decided to restrict exports of sunflower seeds, buckwheat, rice and rye until June 30 due to the coronavirus outbreak, the RIA news agency quoted it as saying on Tuesday.

The customs union, which also includes Belarus, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan, will also not be supplying soybeans and some vegetables such as onions outside of the union until June 30, RIA added.

The decision will come into force ten days after it is published on the official website of the Eurasian economic commission, it said.