Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 20
By Elena Kosolapova – Trend:
The National Bank of Kazakhstan reduced the base rate to 11 percent with a corridor of +/- 1 percent, the bank said in a message Feb. 20.
The base rate has amounted to 12 percent since mid-November. Earlier, the rate stood at 12.5 percent.
The National Bank noted that the annual inflation rate has slowed down in January 2017 to 7.9 percent. Besides, devaluation expectations not only of the population, but also of the professional market participants, have been decreasing.
Moreover the deposit market data show the ongoing process of de-dollarization of the bank deposits and the continuing tendency of depositors’ preferences towards national currency. According to the preliminary data, the share of the foreign currency deposits has decreased to 53 percent by the end of January 2017.
In addition, short-term economic indicator, which reflects the development of economy’s main sectors, is in the recovery zone and has reached 103.8 percent in January 2017. In 2017 the real GDP growth is estimated to be above the level of 2 percent.
The decision on the base rate was made with the account of all these factors, the bank said.
The next decision on the base rate will be announced on April 10, 2017.