International Monetary Fund (IMF) called on the Kazakh authorities to monitor your Central Bank and increase confidence in it, reports Reuters .
The message appeared after it became known about the non-standard practice used regulator to maintain the exchange rate of the national currency. The Central Bank intervenes in the course of trading, rejecting or delaying orders to buy the dollar. In fact, we are talking about a ban on the purchase of foreign currency in excess of the allowed volumes, which contradicts the idea of a floating rate.
The Central Bank drew attention to the use of such a mechanism in early October. After a corresponding journalistic request, the regulator stated that the incident was not related to the tenge exchange rate and the volume of trades.
However, economists believe that the Central Bank will continue to maintain such “interventions” – the question of the tenge exchange rate is politically significant for the country. Last summer, Kazakh President Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev demanded to ensure the stability of the national currency. Because of this policy of the Central Bank, credit organizations are forced to buy dollars on the interbank market, where it is more expensive. However, the tenge retains its status in the foreign exchange market.
The IMF praised Kazakhstan for its adherence to inflation targeting, but noted that a flexible and adequate exchange rate of the national currency would increase confidence in the regulator and help reduce the dollarization of the economy. After this and the implementation of reforms, inflation will be much less dependent on exchange rate volatility.