National economy minister comments on KZT fluctuations

"This issue is covered by the scope of the National Bank, but, in fact, it is likely to do with the market. It has been two years since the tenge is in the free floating regime. We do not target the rate. The inflation is targeted, and, therefore, the market forces determine the ratio of our tenge to any of the foreign currencies. I do not think that our macro forecast, where we put the conservative price for oil, can make anyhow affect it. Nevertheless, I would like to say again that we put the dollar settlement rate, which is aligned with all our macro economic parameters because our macro economic parameters are conservative as we use them for budget planning, and our budget opportunities come out of the size of the macro economy. We always use a conservative approach so that not to be too optimistic and not to put in unachievable things for budget revenues, expenses, and the deficit. This is right," Timur Suleimenov said, answering the journalists' questions in a briefing held in the Government building.

The minister added that the oil-exporting countries always provide for a lower oil price, whereas the countries, which depend on oil imports, put in a higher price for the ‘black gold'.

In addition, the head of the Ministry of Economy dwelt on the growth of the euro against the tenge.

"Regarding the euro, there are currency pairs. We are still looking at what is going on in the European Union. That is, it is not necessarily to be the tenge depreciation against the euro that is occurring. This may be the strengthening of the euro against other currencies, including the dollar. Due to the fact that the EU has enough positive news related to the economic growth, unemployment and so on. So it is necessary to look at the currency pairs," said Timur Suleimenov.

He also commented on the influence of the Russian ruble situation on our national currency rate.

"In fact, the colleagues [from Russia] have also published a part of their macroeconomic forecast recently. In principle, the depreciation of the ruble occurred earlier. According to the forecast, they made in June, by the end the ruble was actually expected to be at the level of 67-68 [against the US dollar]. Now, they have updated the macro forecast, and the rate is 62 there. Therefore, in this respect, I think, as to the oil prices and the way the Russian economy is developing, it gained understanding, and we have the same. Thus, the ruble will not bounce around, and, in principle, we are moving based on the same paradigm here," Timur Suleimenov summarized.