BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 12
Trend:
The National Bank of Kazakhstan disclosed the amount of the assets of the National Fund, Trend reports with reference to Kazinform news agency.
"The assets of the National Fund amounted to $57.1 billion as of late March, having decreased for the month by $523 million due to an excess of allocation over the receipts to the Fund,” Chairman of the National Bank Erbolat Dosaev said at the governmental meeting. “Some $695 million were sold to allocate targeted and guaranteed transfers worth 322 billion tenge or $765 million in March 2021."
“The receipts to the National Fund in March 2021 amounted to only 65 billion tenge ($150.1 million), including foreign currency worth $100.6 million or 42.7 billion tenge,” the chairman added.
"The positive investment income of the National Fund for the month amounted to $72 million or 0.13 percent,” Dosaev said. “At the same time, investment income amounted to $182 million in the first quarter of 2021. The investment income grew and amounted to $580 million on April 9, 2021."
The gold and foreign exchange reserves in March 2021 decreased by $1.1 billion to $33.5 billion, more than 70 percent of the fall in reserves accounted for a decrease in the gold portfolio amid a decrease in the cost of gold (from $1,765 to $1,685 per ounce or by 4.5 percent).
"High volatility was observed in the price of gold,” Dosaev said. “Since early April the price has risen to $1,744 per ounce or 3.5 percent, which ensured the recovery of the gold portfolio by $756 million.”
“The decrease in assets in freely convertible currency in March amounted to $317 million due to a decrease in funds on correspondent accounts and deposits of clients of the National Bank by $335 million in connection with the redemption of Eurobonds of second-tier-banks, as well as financing of projects by the Interstate Bank,’ Dosaev said. “The payment of the state debt amounted to $72 million."
“The gross international reserves in March 2021 amounted to $90.6 billion,” Dosaev said.
Earlier, Dosaev said that the pension assets of the Unified Accumulative Pension Fund since the beginning of the year have decreased by 0.3 trillion tenge ($692.9 billion) or 2.3 percent to 12.6 trillion tenge ($29.1 billion) due to the early withdrawal of funds by the population.