Kazakhstan is resource rich country, and its economy highly depends on the oil export. Oil prices that have been low since the middle of 2014 had a significant effect on the country’s balance of payments and exchange rate. In the pre low oil prices period, the share of the oil export in the country’s total export was in average 70%, therefore, decreased oil prices reduced country’s export negatively affecting country’s balance of payments. The reduced balance of payments in its turn decreased supply of foreign currencies in the country, which led to significant national currency devaluation. Moreover, tax revenues from oil sector were also affected by the low oil prices due to the reduced revenues of oil producing companies. The government had to free-float its currency and had to adopt countercyclical economic policies that aimed to offset the negative effect of low oil prices.
Daniyar Nurbayev is a research fellow at the Eurasian Research Institute. Daniyar completed his bachelor’s degree in Finance in the Kazakh-British Technical University in 2013. In addition, he holds Masters degree in Finance from the Kazakh-British Technical University (2015). In 2014, he attended to the research summer school at University Campus Suffolk in Ipswich, United Kingdom. His research interests include political economy, economic growth in developing countries, macroeconomic and monetary policy related issues.