At a briefing, National Bank Chairman Timur Suleimenov explained why citizens should trust the tenge, reports infohub.kz.
Journalists pointed to data from the Kazakhstan Deposit Guarantee Fund, according to which the population continues to hold 5.9 trillion tenge in foreign currency. They asked who these depositors are.
Suleimenov noted that the total volume of individual deposits is about 30 trillion tenge, and including legal entities' funds, it reaches 46–47 trillion tenge. "This is a very good figure, and our deposits are growing," he emphasized.
According to him, deposit dollarization is at a historically low level of about 19%. Just 3–4 years ago, this figure was 30–35%, and 5–6 years ago, it was 60%. "That is, trust in the tenge is growing year after year," the National Bank head added.
Answering a question about holders of foreign currency deposits, Suleimenov explained: "These are mainly high-net-worth individuals; they certainly also have savings in tenge, but for diversification purposes, they have decided to keep some in dollars."
He also noted that the National Bank has no plans to forcibly convert them into tenge. "It would be difficult to do. Look, if you put money in dollars, you earned 1% on the deposit. The rate on tenge deposits is higher; accordingly, if simple financial math doesn't work, they are probably responsible for their own personal savings," Suleimenov said.
The regulator's head reminded that those who bought dollars at 550 tenge are now incurring losses both from the exchange rate difference and from the opportunity cost of tenge deposits. "You need to trust the tenge," he concluded.