Share of gold in the gold and currency reserves of Kazakhstan's central bank has increased by 30 percent from the beginning of the year, Tengrinews.kz reports citing deputy chairman of Kazakhstan National Bank Bissengali Tadzhiyakov as saying at the plenary meeting of Majilis (lower chamber of the Parliament).

“Starting from the beginning of this year international reserves of the country, including the foreign currency reserves of the National Fund, have increased by 17.2 percent and made $80.5 billion. Gold and currency reserves of the National Bank made $30 billion and assets of the National Fund made $50.5 billion. In line with a presidential decree, last year the National Bank was given a priority right to purchase fine gold in bars inside the country. In this relation, the share of gold in the gold and currency reserves of the National Bank grew almost 30 percent starting from the beginning of this year,” Tadzhiyakov said.

Thanks to this, Kazakhstan’s safety factor and ability to maintain the economy’s sustainability is growing, according to Tadzhiyakov. Amid the managed floating exchange rate regime, Kazakh tenge rate has been fluctuating from 147 to 150 tenge per 1 US Dollar this year. Weakening of tenge versus US Dollar made only 1.1 percent. The monetary base increased by 7.8 percent, i.e. reached 10.5 trillion tenge ($70 billion).

Stability of the national currency, according to Tadzhiyakov, is propped by favorable pricing of goods exported by Kazakhstan. “In the first 6 months of this year the export reached $46 billion growing from $10 billion in the H1 of last year. The import increased from $13 billion in H1 2011 to almost $21 billion in H1 2012,” deputy chairman of the National Bank said.

He also said that the country’s financial sector showed stable developing. “In relation to decrease of external borrowings, the residents’ deposits are the main source of funding for banks. Staring from the beginning of this year deposits of Kazakhstan residents have reached 9 trillion tenge ($60 billion). 3 trillion tenge ($20 billion) of them are represented by household deposits,” Tadzhiyakov added.


By Aidana Ussupova