National Bank to Sell $700-800 Million from National Fund, Resume Dollar Purchases for ENPF

Kazakhstan's National Bank of the Republic plans to sell 700-800 million dollars from the National Fund in March and will resume purchasing dollars for the ENPF, Orda.kz reports.

According to the latest National Bank report on the currency market, the tenge strengthened by 3.7% in February (to 499.09 per dollar).

On KASE, the USD/KZT pair was traded on average per day in the amount of 237 million dollars, and the total trading volume for the month reached 4.7 billion dollars.

In February, 600 million dollars were sold from the National Fund to ensure transfers to the budget. In March, this amount is planned to be increased to 700-800 million.

In addition, the National Bank will continue the mirroring policy — it will sell dollars on the domestic market in the same volume in which it buys gold from domestic mining companies. This approach removed 250 billion tenge from circulation in February to offset exchange intervention, with similar actions expected in March.

Last month, quasi-public sector entities sold $274 million received as foreign currency proceeds (the corresponding norm was introduced in November last year).

The foreign currency share of ENPF pension assets was increased to 40% in 2024, and now they plan to maintain it at the same level. The current figure has temporarily fallen below 40% due to the strengthening of the tenge, so the National Bank will again start buying dollars for the ENPF portfolio (they plan to purchase 250 million in March).

Original Author: Nikita Drobny