Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Kazakhstan has signed a law "On the republican budget for 2021–2023." In 2021, Kazakhstan’s budget revenues will amount to US$27.2 billion, and expenditures - US$33.4 billion. Thus, the deficit will amount to US$6.2 billion, or 3.4% of GDP. It should be noted that this indicator is indicated as a marginal one in the agreed macroeconomic policies of the EAEU countries. In 2020, this Kazakhstani indicator was 3.5%.

Experts note that the rate on social spheres has led to the fact that budget expenditures are now growing faster than revenues. So, already in 2019, compared to 2018, social spending increased by almost US$2 billion (from US$10 billion to US$12 billion). Mainly, this category of costs is growing due to the budget category "social assistance and social security", which includes state pensions and benefits - if in 2018 it was US$5.9 billion, then in 2020 it has already exceeded US$9.5 billion.

Moreover, in 2021, an additional weight of the social component of the budget (which traditionally includes payments of benefits, support for educational and medical infrastructure) was added by the planned increases in the salaries of teachers and medical workers.

In order to cover the budget deficit in 2021, the government of Kazakhstan has already agreed on loans with the Asian Development Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank for a total of US$1.9 billion. This money is intended to "support the economy during the COVID-19 pandemic," it will be used to finance the republican budget deficit with credits to income.

In general, Kazakhstan plans to reduce the budget deficit to 2.1% of GDP already by 2023. No specific measures to reduce expenditures have been specified, but a measure has been taken to abandon forums and large-scale celebrations, which did not have a noticeable effect, since by cutting some items, the government is stepping up others.