Deputy Chairman of Kazakhstan's National Bank Akylzhan Baimagambetov, speaking at a meeting in Astana, listed the factors that have supported the national currency this year, infohub.kz reports.
During the presentation of the International Monetary Fund's Regional Economic Outlook for the Caucasus and Central Asia, journalists noted that the fund's report lists Kazakhstan among countries whose national currencies have strengthened. Media representatives asked how long the trend would last in the republic and what to expect from the tenge next year, given forecasts of lower global oil prices.
Baimagambetov said the National Bank does not issue forecasts for the national currency's exchange rate.
"But fundamentally, in our interviews we always describe the factors that affect the exchange rate of the national currency and what drives it. In particular, for Kazakhstan this year, fairly favorable trade conditions have developed for virtually all of our main export items — oil, metals, uranium, grain. Gold is also a fairly large position. Even though it is not directly exported, because we adhered to the principle of monetary neutrality, we mirror gold transactions, and the proceeds flow into the domestic foreign exchange market," he explained.
Baimagambetov also pointed to companies' borrowing in foreign currency.
"This also partly removed, perhaps, a certain need to buy foreign currency to finance imports. It is a whole set of factors that came together, as a result of which the tenge strengthened naturally," the deputy chairman of the National Bank concluded.