Tag Archives: currency

Kazakh Central Bank widens tenge trading corridor

Kazakhstan’s Central Bank chief Kairat Kelimbetov extended the bandwidth that the tenge could trade against the US dollar to 182-198 from 182-188, effectively giving it room to devalue by over 5%.

Hours after Mr Kelimbetov’s statement, exchange bureaus in Kazakhstan had already upped the price of $1 to over 188 tenge, breaking the psychological 187 value it had been pegged around for so long.

A drop in the value of the Russian rouble and the price of oil has pressured the tenge. The Kazakh Central Bank has stood firm, though, and defended the value of its currency while neighbours have devalued.

Still, Mr Kelimbetov said external pressures had triggered the bandwidth extension and that the move was designed to shift the tenge towards a full free-float over the next 12 months.

“This corridor allows the currency to fluctuate independently of the negative scenarios that may take shape outside Kazakhstan,” he said.

Mr Kelimbetov, though, said he didn’t see the tenge dropping below 192 against the dollar in the next 6 months.

The government has said that it wants its monetary policy to target inflation rather than a tenge-US dollar rate.

This bandwidth extension follows on from a gentle recalibration of the tenge. The Central Bank has allowed it to lose a couple of percentage points in value against the US dollar this year. In February 2014, the Kazakh Central Bank devalued overnight by 20%.

Georgia’s PPI jumps up, again

JULY 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s Producer Price Index (PPI) measured 10.2% higher in June compared to a year earlier, Geostat reported, signalling creeping inflation. Geostat said manufacturing prices had pushed up. Georgian officials have been warning of inflation linked to the devaluation of the lari.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)

Azerbaijani manat stays stable

JULY 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s Central Bank chief Elman Rustamov told local media that he expected the manat currency to remain stable if oil prices steadied at around $50/barrel. The Central Bank devalued the manat by a third in February.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)

Currency transactions rise in Azerbaijan

JULY 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s Central Bank reported that foreign currency exchanges increased by more than 50% in the first six months of the year compared to the same period in 2014. In Feb., Azerbaijan devalued its manat currency by a third.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)

Kazakh Central Bank spends reserves

JULY 8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s foreign currency reserves declined by 4.4% in the first half of 2015, data from the Central Bank showed. Kazakhstan, like other countries across the region, has been defending the value of its currency by spending its reserves.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)

Kyrgyz som amount falls in bank accounts

JULY 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The amount of som held in Kyrgyz bank accounts has fallen by 11% since the beginning of the year, the Central Bank said, a reflection of the reduced confidence that people in Kyrgyzstan have of their national currency. The som, like other Central Asian currencies, has lost around a third of its value since November 2014.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)

Moodys cuts Azerbaijani bank ratings to negative

JUNE 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Moodys, the ratings agency, downgraded Azerbaijan’s banking sector to negative from stable, reflecting the country’s tough economic outlook.

Azerbaijan devalued its currency by a third earlier this year, undermining the
banks, Moodys said.

“We believe that banks’ asset quality will deteriorate following the local-currency devaluation, as most foreign-currency loans in Azerbaijan are to borrowers that do not have foreign-currency revenues,” Moodys said in a report.

Stubbornly high consumer spending and inflation is also pressuring Azerbaijan’s econ- omy.

Based on an average price of a barrel of oil of around $55, Moodys said that Azerbaijan’s economy would grow by 1% this year, one of the slowest growth rates in the developing world.

Oil production dominates Azerbaijan’s economy. Moodys estimated that the hydrocarbon sector contributed around 37% of Azerbaijan’s GDP last years.

Azerbaijan said that is is trying to boost gas sales to Europe but this is not due to come on-stream for several years.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 238, published on July 2 2015)

Armania’s currency reserves increase

JULY 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s foreign currency reserves increased by $100m in May, the Central Bank told media. The increase shows that pressure on the dram has reduced. Last year, the Central Bank spent a third of its reserves defining the dram.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 238, published on July 2 2015)

Remittances to Tajikistan fall sharply

JUNE 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – DUSHANBE – Remittances from Tajik workers in Russia to Tajikistan have dropped by 44% this year, the Russian Central Bank said.

This is inline with World Bank projections and highlights the economic problems facing Tajikistan and other countries in Central Asia. Russia’s economy has dipped into recession because of a combination of falling oil prices and economic sanctions imposed by the West in retaliation for the Kremlin’s alleged support for rebels in east Ukraine.

And this recession has hit Tajikistan and other countries in Central Asia hard. Remittances account for roughly half of Tajikistan’s economy.

In Dushanbe, the mood on the streets was glum.

Amirbek Saidbekov, a Dushanbe resident, said life had gotten harder.

“The money they send home has declined by about a half,” he said. “The money my uncle sends is not enough to provide for his family. The life quality of his family has worsened now.”

Shuhrat Murodilloev, a Dushanbe-based political scientist, said the drop in remittance was having a knock-on effect.

“Market employment is falling because of the decreased sales and the unstable Tajik currency,” he said. “Many people have lost their jobs in the market because there is no money coming from Russia.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 238, published on July 2 2015)

Kyrgyz reserves increase

JUNE 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s Central Bank has been steadily rebuilding its gold and foreign currency reserves since reaching a low in April, media reported. Last year Kyrgyzstan’s Central Bank spent frantically as it tried to prop up its falling currency.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 238, published on July 2 2015)