The Republic of Kazakhstan is a landlocked country that stretches from Central Asia to Eastern Europe, wedged between Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and China. It covers a land area of 2,724,900 square kilometers, making it the ninth-largest country in the world. Along with Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan is also one of the only two landlocked nations that domains in two continents, along with Azerbaijan.
Kazakhstan’s economic growth reaches up to 9% per annum with the extractive industries fueling up this growth. It possesses vast reserves of fossil fuel as well as metals and minerals such as copper, uranium, and zinc. The country also has an enormous agricultural sector that mainly produces grain and livestock. Despite the upgrade of rail lines and the Caspian Sea ports, the country’s geographic location has limited it to export its oil and gas products only to its neighboring countries.
Kazakhstan’s national currency is the Kazakhstani tenge which was introduced on November 15, 1993, replacing the Russian ruble. The first tenge banknotes were in 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, and 50 tiyn, and 1, 3, 5, 10, 20, and 50 tenge denominations. The National Bank of Kazakhstan also issued paper bills that portray philosopher Abu Nasr al-Farabi wearing a turban and in 2006, another family of notes was released featuring the Astana-Baiterek monument on the front design.
With the decline of the global financial markets, capital inflows to the banks of Kazakhstan have slowed down in 2007. In 2008, the country’s economic crisis worsened with the drop in commodity and oil prices. To address the crisis, the tenge was devalued and commodity prices were raised. This game plan has helped the country regain its economy and wrapped 2010 with a 7% growth. Kazakhstan has also launched a diversification program that is geared toward the development of transport, food processing, telecommunications, and pharmaceuticals sectors.