Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Following the decision by some banks to stop issuing mortgages in tenge, Kazakhstan’s Central Bank announced that it will provide the country’s banks with money to bolster mortgage programs.

“To implement the instructions voiced by President Nursultan Nazarbayev at the extended government sitting February 11, the Central Bank along with the government have taken a decision to allocate $698 million to support mortgage programs,” Kazak media reported citing the Central Bank’s Press Service.

The Central Bank emphasized the measure didn’t imply writing off debts and is targeted at making the mortgage conditions more affordable.

Back in December some Kazakhstan-based banks suspended their mortgage programs denominated in the tenge, the country’s national currency. Experts assigned the problem to shortages of tenge. Later Kairat Kelimbetov, the Central Bank Governor, announced that banks would resume their lending operations shortly.

A number have stopped issuing mortgages in tenge, fearing they would end up on the wrong side of a deal after another devaluation.

Kazakh government is grappling with economic difficulties due to the sharp fall in global oil prices and hard economic situation in Russia, its biggest trade partner.

The government is making efforts to prevent the sharp devaluation of national currency-tenge that could dramatically worsen the economic situation in the country.

Most notably, Kazkommertsbank and the Kazakh subsidiary of Russian-owned Sberbank, two leading local lenders, have stopped issuing mortgages in tenge.

Other majors such as Kaspi Bank, BTA Bank or Temir Bank have put their mortgage programs (both in tenge and dollars) on hold.

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Sara Rajabova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @SaraRajabova

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