Rumors of currency devaluation born in beauty parlors and taxis: Gregory Marchenko, Governor of the National Bank

According to Gregory Marchenko, Governor of the National Bank, ungrounded rumors of weakening of the tenge, Kazakhstan’s national currency, against the Russian rouble and of possible devaluation are getting into the media from beauty parlors and taxis [where common people tend to chat on topics of everyday life], Tengrinews.kz reports. Head of the National Bank said that today when speaking at a press-conference in Almaty. “There have been many speculations on Russian rouble being devalued and the tenge following the trend (…) However, all the macroeconomic indicators are good. And the speculations of possible changes emerge because of lack of proper understating of the economic situation and reluctance to analyze rumors, with the latter picked up by journalists in beauty parlors and taxis”, Marchenko said. Head of the National Bank emphasized that “the macroeconomic situation is positive. And with the current prices for commodities the tenge is posed to strengthen”. “This is the policy we pursue. It does not make sense to let the tenge appreciate or devalue substantially. The situation will remain stable, especially given the current commodities exports and the current prices”, Marchenko said. Earlier Kadyrzhan Damitov, President of the Kazakhstan’s Stock Exchange KASE, said that within the Customs Union the exchange rate of the tenge would increasingly depend on oil prices and Russian rouble’s exchange rate.