As of December 10, 1999 net gold and foreign currency reserves of Kazakhstan reached $1.358 bln

/IRBIS, Dec.13, 99/ - The National Bank of Kazakhstan informs that gross gold and currency reserves of Kazakhstan reached $1,838.1 mln in current prices as of December 10, 1999 compared with $1,900.1 mln as of November 30, 1999. Net gold and currency reserves of Kazakhstan as of December 10 at $1,357.5 mln, $1,393.4 mln decrease from November 30. National Bank informs that "$62 mln decrease in international reserves was due to shrinking of currency reserves by $44.1 mln (external debt servicing, sale of the currency by the Ministry of finance at the Exchange) and gold reserves by $17.9 mln". It is also said increase in net internal assets of the National bank had contributed to the expansion in monetary base by 1.9 percent or 1.8 bln tenge. Following is the table which shows international reserves of the National Bank of Kazakhstan and the monetary base as of December 10, 1999, and contains data for November 30: In current prices In real terms* ---------------------- ---------------------- Dec.10, 99 Nov.30, 99 Dec.10, 99 Nov.30, 99 ------------------------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- Gross international reserves, mln USD 1,838.1 1,900.1 1,852.2 1,892.0 including: assets in hard currency 1,335.6 1,379.7 1,335.6 1,379.7 gold 502.5 520.4 516.6 512.3 Net international reserves, mln USD ** 1,357.5 1,393.4 1,371.6 1,385.3 Money base, bln tenge 98.7 96.9 98.7 96.9 USD/KZT(at the end of period) 138.35 138.0 83.8 83.8 Price of gold (for 1 troy ounce, USD) 279.60 292.00 287.45 287.45 ------------------------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- * Price of gold is shown for the end of 1998 ($287.45 per 1 troy ounce); ** Net international reserves is a difference between gross reserves and liabilities in hard currency.