14:52 20.08.2015

Kazakh govt and National Bank decided to switch to freely floating tenge rate at request of businesses – Nazarbayev

1 min read
Kazakh govt and National Bank decided to switch to freely floating tenge rate at request of businesses – Nazarbayev

The Kazakh government made its decision to introduce a freely floating exchange rate for the national currency tenge at the request of the country's small- and medium-sized businesses and exporters, President Nursultan Nazarbayev has said.

"If you ask me about the timing – whether it was right or not – we all thought, I saw everything and, to be honest, we gave the clients of our banks an opportunity to transfer their money into foreign currencies. And those who had such a chance bought cheap goods in Russia in large quantities," Nazarbayev told a meeting with the heads of the country's major enterprises in Astana on Thursday.

The decision to switch to a freely floating exchange rate for the tenge was adopted by Kazakhstan's government and National Bank "at the request of exporters, the national chamber of entrepreneurs, as well as small- and medium-sized businesses of the country," the president said.

"By restoring our competitiveness we will be able to keep jobs at enterprises and improve the situation at enterprises that specialize in exports. And this will eventually influence the level of employees' wages," he added.

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