Kazakhstan may call back part of state securities - head of National Bank

/IRBIS, Feb.8, 00/ - REUTERS informs, with the reference to the head of the National Bank Grigorii Marchenko, that the Ministry of finance of Kazakhstan has not problems with financing the state budget and may call back some issues of state securities (SS). "I do not exclude that the Ministry of finance will call back a few more issues because high tax collections of the fourth quarter of last year allow them not to borrow in domestic market even now in January", said Marchenko. Six month MEKKAM was called back in January for KZT1.925 bln. The head of the National Bank believes the Ministry of finance is fully capable of issuing securities in both foreign currency and tenge. Interest of the market in instruments denominated in tenge was restored after the firming of tenge in November and partially in December. The Ministry of finance followed the market and raised the return which caused demand to exceed supply. "The Ministry of finance agreed with the market that the yield should grow a little and move forward, just a little, however, the Ministry of finance agreed to raise the yield, and we saw it in November and December, demand grew immediately", said Marchenko. The National Bank informs that demand was high for SS denominated in tenge in January, it exceeded supply at an average of 1.8 times. Premium on six month securities was about 17.04-17.01% APR, informs the Ministry of finance. SS of the Ministry of finance, which were in circulation in January (excluding national savings bonds (NSB) and ten year MEAKAM - papers into which the debt of the Ministry of finance to the National Bank for previous loans was converted into) rose 10.5% up to KZT25.1 bln. The Ministry of finance continues to place more "lengthy" papers (MEKAVM- 6,9,12) with weighted average yields of 9.99 %. Marchenko said the liquidity of the banking system is high now due to the presence of free funds both in the banks and in pension funds.