ASTANA – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) welcomes new reforms in Kazakhstan and stands ready to provide advice and technical support, said Nicolas Blancher, division chief in the IMF’s Middle East and Central Asia Department and mission chief for Kazakhstan during the meeting with Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Alikhan Smailov on 6 October.

Smailov and Blancher spoke about the measures taken by the government to ensure macroeconomic stability, control inflation, improve the efficiency of tax administration and budget planning, employment, digitalization and reduce the involvement of l state in the economy.

“We highly appreciate the strategic nature of our partnership with the IMF and the contribution the fund makes to the development of our country,” Smailov said.

On October 5, Blancher said that the IMF recognizes the efforts of the Kazakh government in the field of transaction regulation, especially those related to commercial operations, to minimize situations leading to sanctions during the press conference at the office of the National Bank, Kazinformar reported.

Blancher said that despite the close economic relations between Kazakhstan and Russia, the IMF has not observed any incidents that could be considered a violation of the rules and that there is no reason to believe that such incidents could occur in the future.

He noted that the Kazakh authorities are cooperating with the authorities of foreign countries to avoid any possibility of sanctions and to ensure that the banking system of Kazakhstan functions well.

The IMF has noted a slowdown in Kazakhstan’s economic growth although leading indicators are better than expected. The IMF predicts that Kazakhstan’s growth rate will pick up next year and stabilize in the medium term at 3.5% in the coming years. Risks remain in this scenario due to the situation in Ukraine and sanctions against Russia, Blancher noted.