Buy/sell rates at Almaty currency exchange offices settle at 251/253 tenge/$1
ALMATY. Aug 20 (Interfax) - Currency exchange offices in Almaty, Kazakhstan, have decided at what rate they will buy and sell the national currency tenge against the U.S. dollar, but they feel uncertain about the future situation.
Thus, one of the largest chains of currency exchange offices, Mig, is buying U.S. dollars at a rate of 251 tenge/$1 and selling at 253 tenge/$1.
"At the moment, the exchange rate is standing at 252-253 tenge/$1. It looks like it has leveled out, but we do not know what will happen next," an employee of the Mig exchange office chain told Interfax.
A number of other currency exchange points in the city have also set their exchange rate at 251-253 tenge/$1. No queues can be seen outside the exchange offices, but their employees have noted that customers are now selling the tenge more frequently.
"There is no frenzy. The exchange rate seems to have stabilized. But people are selling the [national] currency. That is true," the Limpopo chain of exchange offices told Interfax.
The city's exchange offices, however, said they feel no certainty as to how the situation surrounding the exchange rate will unfold.
On August 20 Kazakhstan introduced a freely floating exchange rate for the tenge, causing the national currency to plummet by 26% to 255.26 tenge/$1 when trading on the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE).