Kazakhstan's National Bank invests in gold
By Nigar Abbasova
The National Bank of Kazakhstan increased investments in gold in USD terms in May 2016. The volume of investments reached the level of $9.13 billion as compared to $7.79 billion in the same period of the last year, finprom.kz reports
The investment increase was recorded due to active purchase of gold by the National Bank of the country, and the increase of its value in the global market in recent months.
Gross international reserves of Kazakhstan as a whole grew by 3.24 percent in May since early 2016 to $28.78 billion while net foreign assets grew up to $27.93 billion. Reserve assets of the country’s National Bank have not undergone any changes since May 2015 when they amounted to $28.73 billion.
The assets of the National Fund of Kazakhstan decreased by $3.52 billion and amounted to $65.51 billion in May 2016.
The volume of gold reserves is mainly influenced and regulated by currency intervention which is implemented by the National Bank in the domestic market.
Kazakhstan’s National Bank has been steadily increasing its gold reserves over the past few years, according to the World Gold Council.
Gold Reserves in Kazakhstan increased to 228.34 tons in the first quarter of 2016 as compared to the rate of 218.70 shown in the fourth quarter of 2015. The rate accounted for approximately 29.5 percent of the country's total international reserves.
The volume of the reserves averaged 87.86 tons from 2000 until 2016, reaching an all time high of 228.34 tons in the first quarter of 2016 and a record low of 52.69 tons in the first quarter of 2003.
The official exchange rate of the US dollar and euro to Kazakh tenge was set at 335.89 tenge and 380.73 tenge respectively on June 21, 2016.
--
Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova
Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz