Shuvalov not expecting tenge devaluation to affect Russia
GORKI. Feb 12 (Interfax) - First Deputy Russian Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov does not believe the devaluation of the Kazakh tenge announced on Tuesday will have any effect on Russia.
"How could that have an effect on us? We don't have a currency union," Shuvalov said when asked by journalists what the effects of the devaluation on Russia might be.
The National Bank of Kazakhstan decided to stop interventions in the domestic currency market from February 11, 2014. The bank, which had supported the tenge at 150/$1 plus or minus 3%, said that in order to prevent the destabilization of the domestic economy and financial market, it would set the exchange rate band at 185 tenge plus or minus 3 tenge/$1 and would continue smoothing out exchange rate surges and short-term volatility of the exchange rate.
The National Bank's gross international reserves fell 0.65% in January to $24.519 billion, and net reserves fell 0.66% to $23.974 billion.
The official rate on February 12 was 163.9 tenge/$1.
