In February 2021, KZT exchange rate on the stock exchange fluctuated between 414.81 and 424.32 KZT/USD. At the end of February 2021 KZT/USD exchange rate was 417.09 having gained 1.7% for a month.
Total volume of transactions with the ‘KZT – USD’ forex currency pair for the month amounted to $10.9 billion, including trading volume on the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange of $2.3 billion, and transactions on OTC currency market of $8.6 billion. One subsidiary bank accounted for 72.3% of the aggregate volume of the OTC transactions, which is $6.2 billion (71.7% in January 2021, or $6.3 billion), this is attributed to its hedging of equity capital against currency risks. These transactions are closed inside the bank group and they do not affect a ratio of demand or offer of foreign currency on the local currency market, reads the recent report of the National Bank of Kazakhstan.
In February 2021 population bought on a net basis foreign currency in cash for an amount equivalent to 184.9 billion KZT. Compared to a previous month, these expenses declined by 11.7% (209.3 billion KZT in January 2021), net purchases soared by 34.9% year-on-year (137.1 billion KZT). The bulk of expenses were directed to buy USD – 62.6% or 115.8 billion KZT, RUR – 25.7% or 47.5 billion KZT, Euro – 11.6% or 21.4 billion KZT. In the breakdown by types of currencies, costs of USD purchases fell by 13.9% for a month (up 1.9 times y-o-y), RUR purchases dropped by 5.4% (down 14.5% y-o-y) and Euro purchases went down by 12.6% (up 9.3% y-o-y).
