Tenge strong against negative impact from outside
By Aynur Jafarova
Kazakhstan's national currency tenge is strong enough despite
the negative impact from the outside, the National Economy Ministry
told Trend Agency on November 18.
"The adopted currency corridor of 170-188 KZT/$1 provides a
comfortable state of the national currency in spite of the
continued weakening of the Russian ruble," the ministry said.
The high degree of integration of the financial systems of Russia
and Kazakhstan, and economic sectors of the two countries
predetermines the dependence of the exchange rate of tenge on the
dynamics of the Russian ruble.
However, during the currency adjustment in February by the Kazakh
National Bank jointly with the government as a whole possible
economic changes have been considered, including the reduction of
world oil prices and the depreciation of the Russian ruble.
Thus, since early 2014 until late October, the Russian ruble
exchange rate depreciated by 22.9 percent in nominal terms - from
33.1 to 40.7 Russian ruble, exchange rate of KZT decreased by 17.8
percent - from 154,1 to 181,5 KZT.
On the results of late August 2014 compared to December 2013,
KZT exchange rate in real terms has weakened by 12.6 percent, while
the Russian ruble decreased by 5.8 percent.
"Thus, the rate of KZT against the U.S. dollar has improved its
competitiveness in comparison with the rate of the Russian ruble
against the US dollar," the ministry said.
In February, after adjusting the exchange rate of the national
currency by the National Bank of Kazakhstan, the dollar exchange
rate reached 185 tenge ($1=181.843 tenge). In July, Head
of the National Bank Kairat Kelimbetov denied rumors of a second
wave of devaluation.
Meanwhile, the experts in Kazakhstan's Halyk Finance Investment Bank predict that the national currency tenge would face devaluation by late 2014.