ALMATY (TCA) — From the beginning of this year, deposits in the national currency, the tenge, in Kazakhstan banks have increased by 43.8 percent while foreign-currency deposits have decreased by 12 percent, the press service of the National Bank of Kazakhstan said.
“As of the end of June 2016, deposits in the national currency amounted to 7.122 trillion tenge (growth by 6.6 percent during the month and by 43.8 percent from the start of the year), foreign-currency deposits amounted to 9.694 trillion tenge (decrease by 1.3 percent during the month and by 12 percent from the start of the year),” the National Bank said.
In June, the average annual interest rate on national-currency deposits of legal entities was 12.8 percent and of private individuals at 11.6 percent.
The National Bank also said that in June, its participation in the domestic currency market was minimal — 0.1 percent. National Bank interventions in June amounted to as little as $2.5 million in the form of buying the foreign currency.
The National Bank also said that the currency market had seen a continued trend of selling cash US dollars by the population through exchange offices. In June, the population sold $25.7 million ($972.9 million in February-June 2016).
In the meantime, the average exchange rate of the tenge on the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE) on July 27 was 352.37 tenge per $1. The tenge rate has been lowering during the past several days due to the lowering oil price and weakening Russian ruble.
