Kazakhstan Minister of Economy refutes devaluation speculations

On July 1 Minister of Economy and Budget Planning of Kazakhstan Yerbolat Dossayev had a press-conference to refute devaluation speculations.

He was asked by a journalist whether the Western sanctions against Russia and the Chinese-Russian agreement to depart from US dollar and start using Russian rouble and Chinese yuan in their mutual settlements made a new devaluation in Kazakhstan more likely than ever.

"I understand that we here feed on rumors, we live by them. There is a Kazakh word for it - “Uzyn kulak" [a phraseological expression literally translates from Kazakh as “long ear”] … I would like to say that today there are no preconditions for any kind of devaluation. Take a look at the Russian ruble exchange rate: despite all the circumstances it is stable enough and remains within the range predicted by the Russian [central] bank. There is a similar situation in Kazakhstan,” Dossayev said.

Answering the other part of the question on whether the Kazakh government was nourishing plans of a yet another devaluation, he clearly stated that a new devaluation of the tenge was “not expected”.

Dossayev said that there was nothing threatening in the Kazakhstan’s larger neighbours agreement to move away from US Dollars and towards Roubles and Yuan in their payments. He said that this was “normal” and that Kazakhstan itself was planning to start trading with China in yuan.