Tag Archives: currency

Kazakh president sacks Central Bank chief

NOV. 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev sacked Kairat Kelimbetov as head of the Central Bank, two years after he was handed the job.

He promoted 39-year-old Daniyar Akishev, a former deputy head of the Central Bank and his personal economic adviser, to take over from Mr Kelimbetov.

Under Mr Kelimbetov’s watch a combination of low oil prices and a recession in Russia has battered Kazakhstan’s economy. The tenge currency has lost around half its value since Feb. 2014.

Mr Nazarbayev said that he had lost confidence in Mr Kelimbetov. “The lack of confidence in the economy and the national currency — the tenge — should not be allowed to continue,” he said in a statement on his website. “It’s important to work to fix this poor performance.”

The Kazakh Central Bank has lost credibility over the past couple of years. It has flip-flopped on monetary policy and has spent billions of US dollars propping up its currency before defaulting first in Feb. 2014 and then in August this year.

On each occasion, events have appeared to wrong-foot Mr Kelimbetov.

In 2014, he admitted at a press conference after the devaluation that he hadn’t expected it to happen. In August he said that the tenge had moved to a free float against the US dollar before presiding over several more interventions to prop up its strength.

But news that he had been sacked failed to halt the slide in the value of the tenge. By Friday, Nov. 6, it had touched an all-time low against the US dollar of 310/$1.

Inflation data for October presented Mr Nazarbayev and his advisers with more bad news. Pushed up by the devaluation in August, inflation for the year to end-October measured over 9%.

And the disorganisation surrounding the Central Bank also appeared to continue. Shortly after it released a statement saying it would no longer spend millions of US dollars propping up the tenge, the Central Bank cancelled its monthly interest rate meeting without giving a reason or setting a new date.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)

Currencies: Kazakhstan’s tenge, Kyrgyzstan’s som

NOV. 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The tenge finally broke through the 300/$1 level this week. People in Kazakhstan watched their currency lose ground against the US dollar on Thursday and Friday, while the Central Bank, under a new leadership, refrained from any intervention. The official exchange rate reached the record-breaking level of 310/$1 late on Friday, an 11% fall in one week.

The Kyrgyz som lost 1% of its value in one week, hitting 70/$1 on Friday.

Other currencies in the region remained stable throughout the week.

In a rare statement, the Uzbek Central Bank said it would let the sum devalue faster in 2015, compared to 2014. The official exchange rate, currently at 2,692/$1, showed a 10% fall in the first 10 months of the year. But this is about half the unofficial rate. On the black market, $1 can be purchased for as much as 5,900sum, according to the dollaruz.com website.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)

Kazakh parliament passes mortgage bill

NOV. 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kazakh parliament passed a bill which will ban mortgages being given in US dollars unless the applicant earns his or her salary in US dollars. The aim of the bill, which needs to be signed by Pres. Nursultan Nazarbayev before becoming law, is to reduce households exposure to potential bad debt and to give the ailing tenge currency a boost.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)

Kazakh car imports halve

OCT. 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – In Jan.-Aug. 2015, Kazakhstan imported 54,000 cars, roughly half the amount of cars imported during the same period last year. Russia accounted for 85% of the car import market. Between January and August, the Kazakh tenge was overvalued against the rouble, making imports from Russia cheap. The Kazakh Central Bank effectively devalued the tenge in August.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)

Currency: Kazakh tenge, Kyrgyz som

OCT. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — In this current regional economic crisis, when currencies are stable it has to be positive.

The US Federal Reserve Bank kept interest rates unchanged, giving some more breathing room to currencies across Central Asia and the South Caucasus.

This was one of the first stable weeks for currencies in the region after heavy turbulence shook, ravished even, the markets.

The three free-floating currencies followed a similar pattern this week, weakening only marginally.

The Kazakh tenge lost just 0.5% of its value against the US dollar, ending at 279.2/$1 on Friday. The Kyrgyz som followed suit losing 0.7% of its value at 69.4/$1. The Georgian lari was stable at 2.39/$1.

In Tajikistan, the Central Bank said the somoni lost 30% of its value in the year to Sept. 2015. On Friday, it was stable at 6.62/$1.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)

Kyrgyzstan keeps interest rates stable

OCT. 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kyrgyz Central Bank said after its monthly monetary policy meeting that it was keeping interest rates stable at 10% after pressure on the som currency eased in October. Last month, it raised rates by 2% to halt a slide in the value of the som. It lost 16% of its value in June-Sept.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)

Azerbaijan’s Sofaz revenues drop

OCT. 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) -The value of Azerbaijan’s sovereign wealth fund Sofaz dropped by 6.4% to $34.7b between Jan 1 and Oct 1, it said, a decrease that highlights the impact of the fall in oil prices and collapse in the value of its manat currency. Sofaz earns revenues from oil and gas contracts.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)

Kyrgyzstan’s housing market slows

OCT. 20 2015, BISHKEK (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s real estate market has slowed, media reported quoting a land registry report, more evidence that the overall Kyrgyz economy is stalling.

Analysts from the department of land registry said that the number of house sales this year had dropped by around 42% and the market for apartments was down by 34%.

The official position was the housing market had cooled off because prices were simply too high but a construction company in Bishkek said that the real reason activity in the housing market had fallen was the drop in the value of the Kyrgyz som against the US dollar.

“Sanctions on Russian economy definitely affect the purchasing power of our citizens because the US dollar is the currency for real estate transactions,” a construction company manager who wanted to remain anonymous told the Bulletin.

Roughly in line with other currencies in the region, the som has lost around 33% of its value over the past 12 months and is now trading at around 69/$1.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

Azerbaijan’s GDP growth falls

OCT. 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s government said its economy would grow by only 1.8% next year compared to 4.4% this year because of low oil prices and a drop in production. Parliament also approved a national budget for 2016 of 14.6b manat ($13.9b), down by 10.4% from last year.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

Currency: Kazakh tenge, Georgian lari

OCT. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Despite all the reassuring declarations coming from Astana and the Central Bank in Almaty, volatility will be a constant for the Kazakh currency over the next months. There is just no getting away from it.

On Wednesday, Kairat Kelimbetov, Kazakhstan’s Central Bank chief, said 277.5 tenge/ $1 is an acceptable rate as long as oil prices float around $50 per barrel. Already on Friday, Brent prices fell to $48 and the tenge followed to 278.2. Over the past fortnight it has lost 1.5% against the US dollar.

Other currencies fared better this week, maintaining their value. The Georgian lari was steady at 2.39/$1 and even the Kyrgyz som had a calm week below 69/$1.

Rumours of devaluation are more worrisome in Uzbekistan, where the sum is officially stable at around 2,663/$1, but the website dollaruz.com said informal rates on the Black Market are hitting over 5,700 sum/$1.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)