Kazakh tenge drops to historic low
Kazakhstan’s national currency, tenge, dropped to a new historic low of 337.80 tenges per US dollar during the morning trading session at Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE) on December 15, or 15.33 tenges less than on December 14, KASE announced on its website.
The exchange rate decreased from 311.92 tenges to 322.47 tenges per US dollar during the morning trading session on Deecember 14.
No transactions were carried out in euros during the morning trading session on December 15.
This is while the exchange rate of euro during the morning trading session of KASE stood at 357 tenges on Dec.14.
The exchange rate of Kazakhstan’s national currency was 186 tenges per US dollar in July. But it started to drop after the National Bank of Kazakhstan abolished the currency corridor for tenge on Aug.20 and switched to inflation targeting to ensure the implementation of a new monetary policy.
As a result, tenge lost some 30 percent of its value. The National Bank abandoned the transition to a free-floating tenge rate in September and October 2015 and started to sell currency instead.
The bank’s share in the currency market reached 60 percent.
Over $5 billion was sold during this period by using the funds of the National Fund and gold and foreign exchange assets of Kazakhstan’s National Bank.
Kazakhstan’s National Bank said in November that it will minimize its participation in the currency market in order to maintain its own and the National Fund’s gold and foreign exchange assets. As a result, the exchange rate of tenge again dropped from 298.92 tenges to 307.53 tenges per US dollar.
Kazakhstan’s national currency has depreciated by more than twofold over the last two years. The exchange rate was 154.06 tenges per US dollar in early 2014.
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