National Bank Addresses Air Astana Share Value Decline in Pension Fund

Kazakhstan's National Bank has responded to concerns about the falling value of Air Astana shares purchased with pension funds, Orda.kz reports.

The Unified Accumulative Pension Fund invested 24.9 billion tenge in the airline's shares a year ago, which have since depreciated.

Nurzhan Tursunkhanov, director of the monetary operations department, addressed the matter today on the sidelines of the Senate.

There are financial instruments that show success at a specific moment, and there are those that temporarily drop. The work should be assessed as a whole for the entire portfolio, Tursunkhanov stated.

He emphasized Air Astana's continued successful operations and noted that these shares represent less than 10% of total pension assets.

Yes, there were investments in Air Astana, but shares are a volatile instrument. We all use the services of this airline, we know its work and we see that it continues to operate successfully. Of course, there are periods of decline, but for us these are long-term investments, and in the overall structure they account for less than one tenth of all pension assets, and perhaps even less. It is wrong to evaluate the effectiveness of management based on only one investment, which is temporarily declining, added the representative of the monetary regulator.

During Senate discussions on Kazakhstani pension savings, the National Bank reported that ENPF assets reached 22.4 trillion tenge as of January 1, 2025, showing a 26% increase over the year.

Original Author: Artyom Volkov