The demand for dollars decreased

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The National Bank of Kazakhstan reports about the drop of demand for the foreign currency

There is a significant decrease of demand for foreign currency among population of Kazakhstan. This statement was made by the chairman of the National Bank of Kazakhstan Daniyar Akishev today at the National Forum "Corporate Governance: a new perspective on the investment attractiveness of Kazakhstan".

Thus, according to the National Bank, the population purchased 213 million dollars in exchange offices in January of this year. In February, the trend has intensified. Akishev noted that "preferences were replaced in favor of tenge, and the population began to sell foreign currency".

"For the first time in the last 10 years, there was observed a net sale of foreign currency by population, the volume of which in February amounted to 277 million dollars. In the future, we expect to strengthen this trend", - said Daniyar Akishev.

In addition, the chairman of the National Bank said that "at the end of February and the first half of March” was observed the growth of deposits in the national currency, i.e., de-dollarization process takes a real scale". According to the National Bank of Kazakhstan, deposits in national currency in January-February of the current year increased by 307.6 billion tenge (6.2%), including deposits from the public - 96.0 billion (6.7%).

However, the regulator said that "it reserves the right to participate in the currency market in order to prevent sharp fluctuations".

"The National Bank reserves the right to participate in the currency market to prevent sharp fluctuations in case of threats to financial stability", - said D. Akishev, recalling that "in March 2016 the exchange rate fluctuated in the range of 343-349 tenge per dollar" .

However, Akishev said that "the National Bank will continue to conduct a free floating exchange rate policy”. D. Akishev repeated the statement that "the National Bank does not orient on the exchange rate and does not predict its value" and this "policy” ensures safety of gold and foreign currency reserves".

Among other fundamental topics raised today, the chairman of the National Bank, mentioned the practice of corporate governance. Daniyar Akishev complained that "it is not widely used in Kazakhstan".

"Even Iin other areas, where there are systemically important, investment-attractive and commercially profitable companies, the principles of corporate governance do not receive wide application", - stated the head of the National Bank.

According to Daniyar Akisheva, there are 2 347 joint stock companies, which are registered in Kazakhstan, of which "only 85 are listing ones". In the sectoral structure "the stock market is represented mainly by energy companies of the quasi-public sector and financial institutions", and the share of private industry in the stock market does not exceed 4%.

"At the same time, 2981 industrial companies are registered in Kazakhstan, including those in the mining and processing sector, of which only 63 are in the form of joint stock companies", - concluded the head of the National Bank.

Among the reasons is the lack of interest of companies and their owners in implementation of corporate governance, Akishev named the "lack of confidence in an appropriate level of guarantees for the protection of property rights in the consideration of corporate disputes".

"Business often tends to blur the ownership among several small companies rather than to consolidate into one large company or try to find a "safe harbour" and to create a holding company outside of Kazakhstan", - stated the chief banker of the country. As a result, there are problems”, believes Akishev, when, on the one hand, capital owners are willing to disclose information and to improve transparency. On the other hand, "they face the uniform interpretation and application of law in solution of corporate disputes in the courts".

Zhanar Serdalina