Subject: Kazakhstan currency plunges after free-float decision - The Washington Post
From: "Eric Schwerin" <[email-masked]>
To: "Hunter Biden" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2015 09:48:35 -0400

> https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/kazakhstan-currency-plunges-after-free-float-decision/2015/08/20/3915f112-472a-11e5-9f53-d1e3ddfd0cda_story.html <https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/kazakhstan-currency-plunges-after-free-float-decision/2015/08/20/3915f112-472a-11e5-9f53-d1e3ddfd0cda_story.html>
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> Kazakhstan currency plunges after free-float decision
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> MOSCOW — Kazakhstan currency plunged by over 20 percent against the dollar on Thursday after the government decided to move to a free float to cope with big swings in global currencies and commodity prices.
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> The collapse follows a slump in the price of oil, Kazakhstan’s main export, and drops in the value of the currencies of the country’s main trading partners, Russia and China.
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> The Kazakhstan Stock Exchange said the currency, the tenge, was trading at over 250 to the dollar Thursday afternoon after closing at 197.05 the day before.
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> Local media in Kazakhstan reported Thursday that the fall in value of the tenge had triggered a rush to buy luxury imported goods ahead of expected price rises and that many currency exchanges had closed for the day.
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> In a statement, Prime Minister Karim Masimov said the government and central bank had implemented the free float as part of “a new money and lending policy based on a regime of targeting inflation” and preventing a fall in employment.
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> However, the government said the central bank will still intervene in currency markets on domestic markets if it perceives “the emergence of threats to destabilize the country’s financial system.”
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> The policy change comes a day after President Nursultan Nazarbayev ordered a reduction in the deficit to prepare for a possible further crash in the price of oil, which he said could drop as low as $30 a barrel. The international crude oil contract traded at over $100 a barrel at the start of last year, but has since dropped to below $47, hurting Kazakhstan’s economy and government finances.
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> “In recent years we have built much, increased staffing and wage levels,” said Nazarbayev, who has ruled the oil-rich Central Asian state since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, in comments released by his office.
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> “However, now we observe a lack of funds. In connection with this, expenditure on new projects will be strictly limited by opportunities to increase the income base.”
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> Nazarbayev also said he expected low commodity prices could continue for a further five years and that Kazakh exports had been hurt by low demand in Russia and China.
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Eric D. Schwerin
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