Azernews.Az

By Aynur Karimova

The exchange rate of Kazakhstan's national currency, the tenge, the world’s worst-performing currency of 2015 according to Bloomberg, fell to 337.66 tenges per USD during the morning trading session at the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange on December 29.

KASE reported that the figure is 6.18 tenges less than on December 28.

The trading volume on the USD rose to $249 million compared to $125 million in the morning session the day before.

The tenge exchange rate against the euro also fell during the morning trading session by 5.2 tenges standing at 371.10 tenges per one euro. The trading volume was 200,000 euros.

Kazakhstan's Central Bank had devalued the tenge three times since 1999. Over the past two years, the Kazakh national currency lost more than half of its value. In early 2014, the exchange rate of the tenge was at 154.06 tenge/dollar.

Kazakhstan, the largest oil producer among former Soviet republics after Russia, shifted to a floating exchange rate in August 2015 after the tumbling crude prices and devaluations in Russia and China.

In September and October 2015, the National Bank abandoned the transition to a free-floating tenge rate and started to sell currency instead. The bank’s share in the currency market reached 60 percent. Kazakh National Fund and the National Bank sold more than $5 billion in this period.

Meanwhile, experts predict a sad scenario for the tenge's fate. They believe that in the near term, oil will probably continue to fall and that will affect the tenge.

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Aynur Karimova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Aynur_Karimova

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