The Analytical Center of the Association of Financiers of Kazakhstan released an auto lending review for the first half of 2026, recording a 9% year-on-year drop in applications alongside a weighted average interest rate surge from 18.8% to 24.4%.
Approved applications declined by 13% to 449,700, and auto loan origination volumes tumbled by 24% to 886.6 billion tenge. The approval rate for car loans slipped from 17.6% to 16.8%, while retail lending overall saw a steeper decline from 28.8% to 25.3%. The auto loan portfolio expanded by just 5.2%, compared to a 23.2% increase a year earlier, as the share of overdue loans ticked up from 2.7% to 3.0%.