Politics

Monday January 10, 2000

PM Confirms The 2000 Privatisation Programme

The government of Kazakhstan will continue to implement the privatisation programme in 2000.  “Neither a roll-back, nor a slowing down in the pace of privatisation can be allowed,” Kazakh Prime Minister Kasymzhomart Tokayev told the cabinet at its first meeting this year on Tuesday. He confirmed that the privatisation of state property will be continued this year and that the blue chips programme will be implemented. He said that Kazakhstan is expected to gain over USD400 million from privatisation in 2000.

Monday January 17, 2000

Tenge Drops 64.6% in 1999

The exchange rate of Kazakhstan’s national currency, the tenge, dropped 64.6% in 1999 (10.7% in 1998) to 138.25 tenge/USD 1 by the end of the year, the National Bank (NB) of Kazakhstan’s Chairman, Grigory Marchenko, said at a press conference. The tenge suffered its worst drop in value (30.3%) after it was allowed to float freely against the U.S. dollar on 5 April 1999. The exchange rate was 88.3 tenge/USD 1 at the time.  Marchenko said that in the following months the soft decline of the tenge was the result of a relative currency exchange balance.

Kazakhstan’s gross gold and currency reserves fell by USD 5.3 million (0.3%) between 14 January and 31 January, the National Bank (NB) reported. Reserves totalled USD 1.937 billion at the end of last month. This figure includes USD 1.428 billion in hard currency reserves, a drop of USD 6.9 million over the second half of January.