It seems that so-called “market reforms” demanded by the Western financial establishment contributed to sparking the riots this week in Kazakhstan, in particular a huge spike in liquefied natural gas prices. Eurasia.net reports that on January 1, 2022, market reforms initiated in January 2019 were completed by reverting to electronic trading to determine the price of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) was completed, and predictably prices spiked.
This means that almost all trade in LPG now happens over online trading platforms, with the exception of sales to industrial consumers in the petrochemical sector and a few other cases. In a matter of a day prices for LPG at gas stations doubled from 60 tenge ($0.14) to 120 tenge ($0.28) per liter in the western province of Mangistau, where the first riots took place. The government estimates that 70-90 percent of vehicles in the region run on LPG.
The government has now suspended electronic trading and has reduced prices to appease the population. Historically the price was set by the government, but it is claimed that the price was below the cost of production. It is true that LPG prices in the country are far lower than in Russia and other countries in the region. This has led to shortages, since producers are said to be suffering losses.
