ASTANA (TCA) — As part of the ongoing capital amnesty campaign, Kazakhstan citizens have legalized shadow money worth more than KZT 1 trillion since the beginning of 2016 until August 1, with the country’s largest city, Almaty, accounting for over 85 percent of all legalized money, Ranking.kz reports.
Kazakh citizens have increased the amount of legalized money by opening accounts in banks by over 1,200 percent since the beginning of 2016. The total amount of money returned to the Kazakh economy stood at KZT 1.336 trillion (around US $3.8 billion) as of August 1. This money accounted for more than 65 percent of the total volume of legalized assets (including property and securities).
The money that has already been legalized was equivalent to 3.3 percent of the country’s GDP in 2015. Should the current growth rates continue until the end of the year, this indicator may increase to almost 8 percent.
Starting from January 2016 the average size of accounts opened for legalization had exceeded KZT 0.5 billion. In Almaty, the unconditional leader of the legalization program, the average size of accounts had reached KZT 1 billion. The second largest average size of accounts was recorded in the Mangistau province.
Legalization accounts have now been opened in all regions of Kazakhstan, with a sharp growth reported in the Karaganda, South Kazakhstan, and Aktobe provinces.
