Baku, Azerbaijan, April 16
By Fakhri Vakilov – Trend:
Foreign currency reserves of the National Bank of Kazakhstan have decreased by 13.4 percent since the beginning of the year, Trend reports via Kazakh media.
“The decrease in foreign exchange reserves occurred due to the reduction in customer account balances. As of April 15, 2019, gold reserves amounted to $26.8 billion. Moreover, the assets of the National Fund increased by 2.3 percent to $59 billion. Total international reserves amounted to $85.8 billion,” the Chairman of the National Bank Yerbolat Dossayev said at a meeting of the Government of Kazakhstan.
The head of the National Bank also said that the situation in the foreign exchange market is stable. The exchange rate is influenced by fundamental factors. The exchange rate strengthened by 1.2 percent since the beginning of the year and as of April 15 was 379.56 tenge per US dollar.
In March 2019, monthly inflation was 0.5 percent. Annual inflation remained at the level of 4.8 percent, which corresponds to the middle of the target corridor of 4-6 percent for 2019.
He said that on April 15 the National Bank of Kazakhstan decided to lower the base rate to the level of 9.0 percent. This level will contribute to achieving the targets of inflation for 2019-2020.
He stated that the decision to reduce the base rate is due to the positive influence of such internal and external factors as a slowdown in inflation, lower inflation expectations of the population, low inflation in the countries - major trading partners, as well as rising global oil prices.
He also spoke about the state of the balance of payments and foreign debt and noted that the final results of the past year have already been summed up.
“For 2018, the current account of the balance of payments improved significantly and was formed with a small deficit of $51.7 million, or 0.03 percent of GDP against the background of rising prices for export goods and increasing demand in foreign markets. Net inflows of foreign direct investment rose by 31 percent, to $4.9 billion” the head of the financial regulator stressed.
The National Bank noted that the external debt as of January 1, 2019 amounted to $158.8 billion, decreasing by $8.4 billion by 2018.
The head of the National Bank also clarified that the indicators of the development of the banking system of Kazakhstan in the first quarter of this year were influenced by the ongoing recovery processes, in particular Tsesnabank JSC.
“Following February 2019, deposits compared to December 2018 decreased by 5.2 percent to 17.6 trillion tenge due to a decrease in deposits in foreign currency by 14.6 percent. Deposits in tenge increased by 3.6 percent, which ensured a decrease in dollarization of deposits to 43.6 percent which is the minimum value over the past 5 years,” Yerbolat Dossayev commented.
He stressed that banks are increasing lending activity. In January-February 2019, new loans were issued in the amount of 1.9 trillion tenge, which is 11.2 percent more than the same period last year. The loan portfolio amounted to 12.5 trillion tenge at the end of February 2019, including long-term loans - 10.6 trillion tenge, short-term loans - 1.9 trillion tenge.
The rate on tenge loans continues to decline. In February this year, it was at the level of 12.4 percent for business compared to 12.9 percent in February last year, including for short-term loans - 12.1 percent, for long-term loans - 13.5 percent.
($1-379.94 tenge April 16)
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