President Nazarbayev opposes state support to failing banks and companies

Banks and large-scaled businesses shouldn’t rely on state support, Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev said at the extended government sitting on Friday. “We are in market economy, (…) in a market economy thousands of businesses go out of business every year, with new ones coming to replace them. We have never practiced that. There are too many entities in agriculture that have taken loans [and are unable to pay off]. We have never let farmers or industrial tycoons go bankrupt. As long as we don’t let them go bankrupt, we are dragged in socialism with one foot”, he said. “We have been defending private banks every time (…) some of them used to brag about being large and rich and now they are begging for state support. What were they thinking about when extending the now-non-performing loans? Let them reduce the share of NPLs, taking the burden on themselves. If they are reluctant to do that, there will be no state support”, President said.