Kazakhstan will tap its $60 billion rainy-day National Fund for an extra 1.825 trillion tenge ($4.1 billion) this year, Information Minister Dauren Abayev said on Sunday.
The 67% increase in the annual transfer will help finance Kazakhstan's $10 billion stimulus package aimed at softening the blow from the coronavirus outbreak and the plunge in the price of oil, the Central Asian nation's main export.
The Nur-Sultan government is redrafting its 2020 budget and has locked down six major cities, including the capital, in an attempt to slow the spread of the virus. Lockdown in oil industry hub Atyrau was the latest, also announced on Sunday. It plans to direct the stimulus money towards infrastructure projects that will help reduce unemployment and subsidies for sectors that have been hit hardest by the coronavirus outbreak and oil price shocks, as well as welfare payouts.
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