Astana, Kazakhstan, June 2
By Daniyar Mukhtarov - Trend:
The government of Kazakhstan and the country's National Bank are jointly working out a complex of measures to reduce inflation, Kazakh Minister of Economic and Budget Planning, Erbolat Dossayev told reporters.
"Jointly with the National Bank, the Kazakh government is developing a complex of measures to reduce inflation to 3-4 percent in the medium term. This work will be completed in July, 2014," the minister said.
Dossayev stated that the strengthening of inflationary processes has been observed since February, 2014 as a result of adjustment of the tenge exchange rate.
Inflation in the country has increased by 1.7 percentage points compared to the same period of 2013 and stood at 3.9 percent in April, 2014, compared to December, 2013.
"Despite the increase, the inflation level for 2014 is estimated at 6-8 percent," Dossayev stressed, adding that medium-term and short-term measures will be taken.
"The exchange rate policy will focus on preventing the dramatic increases and short-term volatility of the exchange rate," the minister said.
The exchange rate of the dollar unexpectedly increased from 182 tenge to 185 tenge in Almaty, which caused speculations about the possibility of a second wave in national currency devaluation.
Olzhas Khudaibergenov, the advisor to the chairman of Kazakhstan National Bank wrote on his Facebook page that no devaluation is expected, as there are not any economic prerequisites for this.
However, some experts do not rule out the possibility of tenge's devaluation in the near future due to the sanctions imposed by the West against Russia and the possible de-dollarization in neighboring countries.
Edited by C.N.