Head of NB of Kazakhstan does not expect problems with tenge due to Russian elections

/IRBIS, March 6, 00/ - REUTERS informs, with the reference to the head of the bank, that the National Bank of Kazakhstan believes oncoming presidential elections in Russia will not have a negative impact on Kazakhstani currency market and the dynamics of the tenge exchange rate will change as forecasted. Marchenko said if the elections would go normal and political stability in Russia would firm then it will cause outflow of capitals from Russia to stop and rouble will firm. He added they were assessing all scenarios. The chairman said the National Bank had a plan of actions for any scenarios, and that political stability would be a stabilizing factor for the rouble to firm and it would affect Kazakhstani currency market. "Firming of the rouble is a positive scenario for Kazakhstan and if the rouble falls down sharply, then it (the plan of NB of Kazakhstan) will depend on the rate of rouble decrease. We will react based on that. We have corresponding plan for such scenario", he said. Russia is the main trade partner of Kazakhstan, although its share is decreasing in the country's exports (about 30% last year). The National Bank informs that rate of tenge at the Exchange fell 0.76% last month from 0.82% in January, at KZT140.44 per U.S. dollar. It is said inflation equaled 0.1% in February (the lowest since September 1999) compared with 2.6% in January. The head of research and statistics department Gulbanu Aimanbetova said inflation and exchange rate of tenge were changing according to the forecasts of the National Bank and the government. "Our calculations of the real exchange rate and the payment balance show that the trend of increasing nominal exchange rate of tenge is a normal objective reality. There are no worries about the decrease in nominal exchange rate now", she said. The National Bank and the government expect annual average exchange rate of tenge at KZT148.5 per dollar and the inflation at 9%. Marchenko said their main task was to match the inflation with the growth rate of the U.S. dollar, so that the real exchange rate remains unchanged and the inflation coincides with the devaluation when the inflation of the dollar in the USA is excluded.