National Bank Governor's advisor refutes Kazakh currency devaluation rumors

Adviser to the Governor of the National Bank of Kazakhstan denies the possibility of tenge devaluation, Tengrinews reports. Olzhas Khudaibergenov wrote this in his official Facebook page.

The advisor commented on the speculations about possible devaluation. "There will be no devaluation tomorrow, no Hour X or anything of that sort. Tomorrow the National Bank will make an official statement, and then there will be a debriefing! Remember all those who is frightening you with a devaluation - I hope they have enough dignity to play no more on people's fears!" Khudaibergenov wrote in the evening of July 31.

Khudaibergenov’s remarks came as a reply to the most recent uneasiness of the population fearing a repeated tenge devaluation. 

On July 31, there were long queues in some of the currency exchange offices of Astana and Almaty. Several such establishments even ran out of US currency bills. The morning exchange rate was 184.8 tenge for a dollar, while in the evening some exchange points raised it to 187. However, the majority kept their exchange rate unchanged or within more acceptable margins.

After adjusting the exchange rate in February 2014, the National Bank said that the new exchange rate of 185 tenge for 1 USD had a margin of fluctuations +/- 3 tenge.

Tenge depreciated by 19% overnight in February, which raised fears of steep inflation in the Central Asian country that exports raw materials and imports almost everything else. Worries that another devaluation might follow have been resurfacing all the time since then.

By Dinara Urazova