Kazakhstan’s central bank sold $232 million from its reserves on the domestic market last month in its first interventions since March to prop up the tenge currency, it said on Thursday, Reuters writes.
The interventions came on top of foreign exchange sales from the National fund to the tune of $551 million and $300 million in sales by state-owned companies, the central bank said in a statement.
The oil-exporting Central Asian nation’s currency hit a five-month low against the dollar in September as it trailed the Russian rouble, the currency of Kazakhstan’s major trading partner, and crude prices.
The central bank said the tenge would not necessarily “linearly” follow the rouble, which remains under pressure to the risk of fresh sanctions on Russia, and said the exchange rate would depend on economic fundamentals.
Kazakhstan’s finance ministry raised 40 billion roubles ($513.17 million) through a debut bond issue on the Russian market last month, and the central bank said the currency would be sold on the domestic market.
