National Bank to withdraw another 8 trillion tenge from economy

The National Bank of Kazakhstan plans to withdraw about 8 trillion tenge more from the economy as part of monetary regulation. This was announced by the head of the regulator Timur Suleimenov at a government meeting. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.

Key measures

The bulk of this amount will come from two measures. The first is mirroring gold purchase operations. In the first seven months of 2026, the National Bank has already withdrawn 2.4 trillion tenge this way. By the end of the year, the regulator expects to bring this volume to 4.1 trillion tenge.

Mirroring gold purchase operations became known in January 2025. At that time, it was reported that the regulator intended to move to "monetary neutrality" in this way. The mechanism itself involves the National Bank selling foreign exchange proceeds from gold exports. According to Suleimenov, this reduces the excess amount of money in the economy and helps lower inflation.

The National Bank expects to tie up another about 4 trillion tenge by gradually increasing minimum reserve requirements for banks.

New requirements for banks

The National Bank approved new reserve requirements for banks in August 2025. For tenge liabilities, requirements increased from 1.3% to 3.5%, and from September 1, 2026, they will increase to 5% (for certain categories of liabilities), while for foreign currency liabilities they have already increased from 2.5% to 10% and will then reach 15%.

These are percentage shares of liabilities that banks must hold in a correspondent account at the National Bank – this money does not participate in circulation, and therefore cannot be used by banks for lending or other profit-making instruments.

Important nuance

It is also important to understand that both mechanisms withdraw tenge from the economy, but in the case of mirroring, liquidity returns to the system in the form of currency.

Earlier, Kursiv wrote that a radical increase in reserve requirements for banks in Kazakhstan, according to the regulator's plan, should lead to a reduction in the trade liquidity surplus and a slowdown in inflation.

Back in October 2025, Suleimenov spoke about the need to withdraw excess liquidity from the economy. By that time, about 4.2 trillion tenge had already been withdrawn.