Kazakhstani Tenge falls

Almost all currency exchange offices in Kazakhstan were closed on Aug 19. According to EADaily, the key reason is the slump of Kazakhstani Tenge (KZT) to 198 KZT per 1 USD, which is the bottom of the Kazakh Central Bank’s trading range.

As compared with Aug 18, on Aug 19, KZT fell by 5% in big Kazakh cities.

Kazkommertsbank fixed the buying and selling rates at 195.54 KZT/1 USD and 198.67 KZT/1 USD, respectively. In the Kazakh subsidiary of the Russian Sberbank, the rates were 196/$1 and 198/$1, in the National Bank 195.62/$1 and 197.49/$1, in currency exchange offices of Almaty, Astana and some other cities 196/$1 and 198/$1, respectively.

In the meantime, on the cash market EUR is rising: on Aug 19, its buying and selling rates were 216.7 KZT per 1 EUR and 19.65 KZT per 1 EUR, respectively.

People are actively buying foreign currency as they fear that the falls of RUR and CNY will cause a slump of KZT. In some cities, currency exchange offices are closed.

In Kazakhstan, the maximum gap between the buying and selling rates for USD is 2 KZT. For EUR it is 3 KZT. For the moment, KZT’s exchange band against USD is 170-198. Following the fall of RUR and oil prices, experts warned that KZT might also fall. Some of them expected a fall after the presidential election in Apr. But once winning the race, Nursultan Nazarbayev said he has no such plans.