Despite government measures aimed at supporting investment in Kazakhstan, Kazakhstani investors—both private and institutional—continue to channel their funds into foreign projects, ranking.kz reports based on data from the National Bank of Kazakhstan.
In 2025, the outflow of direct investment abroad from Kazakhstani investors reached $2.4 billion, an increase of 30% year-on-year. In 2024, this figure fell sharply by 61%, to $1.9 billion.
Despite last year’s increase, the outflow level cannot be considered critical. On the contrary, it remains significantly below the average for the past 15 years.
The largest investment outflow in 2025 was from the financial sector: $1.5 billion.
The top five sectors also included:
– households employing domestic workers and producing goods and services for their own consumption – $449.6 million
– manufacturing – $211.9 million
– transportation and warehousing – $85.9 million
– construction – $44.7 million.
By country, the largest outflows from Kazakhstani investors were to Turkey ($1.1 billion), the UAE ($455.1 million), and Uzbekistan ($292.8 million).
Overall, several factors can be identified. The volume of investment outflow to Turkey was likely related to the purchase of a popular marketplace by a Kazakhstani financial institution. Investments in Uzbekistan were likely driven by projects by Kazakhstani developers in the local market. The outflow of funds to the UAE could be linked to investments in households employing domestic workers and producing goods and services for their own consumption.
While previously, significant amounts of funds were directed to countries with offshore zones, now Kazakhstani investments are primarily focused on real projects abroad.
