US dollars sales by exchange offices in the summer months have been on the increase, which according to the National Bank of Kazakhstan can be explained by the seasonal factor associated with the increased demand of the population for foreign cash to pay expenses during the holidays abroad, also remittances abroad, including those sent by labour migrants.
According to the NBK, in July 2018, the exchange rate of the tenge varied within the range of 341.62-347.06 per US dollar. As of the end of July 2018, the rate was 346.7 tenge per US dollar, 1.6% down in the month (from the year start the weakening made 4.3%).
The total volume of operations on the KZT / USD currency over the month was $ 14.7 billion (a 12.7% decrease for the month), including the volume of exchange trades on the KASE of $ 2.9 billion (4.8% decrease), the volume of transactions in the over-the-counter foreign exchange market of 11.9 billion US dollars (a decrease of 14.4%). The volume of transactions of one subsidiary bank, connected with hedging of equity capital from currency risks, amounted to 8.5 billion US dollars, 5.3% down compared to the previous month.
At the same time, their share of the total volume of over-the-counter trades amounted to 72.0% (65.1% in June 2018). This operation does not affect the volume of demand or supply of foreign currency in the domestic foreign exchange market.
In July 2018, the population bought the foreign currency cash in an amount equivalent to KZT 237.5 billion on a net basis. The main volume of purchasing fell on US dollars accounting for 68.9% or 163.6 billion tenge, Russian rubles accounting for 21.9% or 51.9 billion tenge, the euro accounting for 8.8% or 20.8 billion tenge. Compared to the previous month, these expenses increased by 49.1% (expenses for the purchase of US dollars and Euros increased by 2.0 times and by 1.0%, respectively, expenses for the purchase of Russian rubles decreased by 10.1%).
The total amount of net sales of foreign currency in exchange offices since the beginning of the year is at the same level as last year (KZT1.1 trillion).
Reported by the Kazakhstanskaya Pravda.
