Abstract
The fundamental changes brought by the digitalization of financial markets have become an essential feature of modern economies. Importantly, they reshape the way financial services are delivered by enhancing their efficiency, lowering transaction costs and broadening the financial inclusion. Despite these significant improvements, the contribution of digital financial services to economic growth of developing countries such as Kazakhstan remains speculative. The study addresses this problem by examining the actual effect of digital financial services on economic growth of Kazakhstan during the period 2000-2023. Multiple linear regression and correlation analyses were utilized including GDP per capita as the indicator of economic growth, and mobile cellular subscriptions as a proxy for digitalization in financial services. The main empirical findings reveal that digitalization of financial services positively affects economic growth by raising GDP per capita. More precisely, a one percent increase in mobile cellular subscriptions (lnMCS) leads to 0.14 percent rise in GDP per capita (lnGDPpc). Hence, it can be said that these results underline the crucial role of digital financial services in fostering sustainable economic growth.