National Fund's investment income hits $2.4bn in H1 2017

"According to preliminary data (the National Bank provides a quarterly report to the Ministry of Finance within 60 calendar days following the reporting period), the investment income of the National Fund of the Republic of Kazakhstan for the first half of 2017 has amounted to USD2.4 billion," the statement says.

As noted, according to the Kazakh National Fund's current rules for investment operations, the US dollar is the National Fund's reference currency used for measuring the profitability of its asset management. As per the Q1 2017 management results, the investment income has equaled $1.3 billion.

"The investment loss in the amount of KZT784 billion mentioned in the press release is the unrealized loss for Q1 2017 resulting from the reassessment of the fund's currency assets in KZT. The national currency appreciation against the US dollar from 333.29 (as of December 31, 2016) to 314.79 (as of March 31, 2017) had contributed to the negative exchange rate difference in the calculations of the total income (loss) that was formed by the movements in the fund's foreign-exchange holdings value for the reporting period expressed in KZT," the report says.