On over-the-counter market of Kazakhstan offer price for the dollar reached 136.35 tenge

/IRBIS, Sep.08, 99/ - As the agency informed earlier, the trade session with US dollars at KASE was closed at 135.24/29 tenge per unit of the currency. Following are the quotations of Kazakhstan interbank over-the-counter exchange market provided by the dealers to the information system REUTERS (the interval is about an hour): 135.24/29 - closing of the exchange, 135.00/136.00 135.15/136.15 135.25/136.25 135.80/136.30 135.85/136.35 - at 4:00PM Almaty time. Rates for "overnight" interbank tenge deposits grew to 11 (demand) and 19 (offer) APR, which indicates that banks got significantly active on over-the- counter market. Involvement of bank resources in currency market was taken skeptically before, and now it is obvious that not only bank clients but also the banks of the second tier themselves got in on the market. Sharp growth of spreads shows that dealers themselves do not see the level at which dollar exchange rate growth may stop. The National Bank did not mark this level on today's trades and the market evolves absolutely free. Dealers say nobody expected such a exchange rate jump. There is no panic, but dealers are worried about people's behavior, who can create inexorable demand for dollars in hand, thus stimulating further increase in dollar exchange rate. Dealers show another reason of speeding up the devaluation, in addition to those explained by IRBIS earlier, which is an increase in customs fee for currencies brought into the country by legal entities. New fee will come into force soon, and therefore some banks may build stocks of currencies for future use. IRBIS agency recently got the news that first round of fall talks with IMF had ended in Kazakhstan. Its results are not known yet. If the talks did not go successful, this information could get into the market and have destabilizing impact on bank clients and the banks of the second tier themselves.