Kazakhstan sees fall in USD sales

By Azernews

By Laman Ismayilova

The US dollar sales at exchanges in Kazakhstan have dropped by by 5.7 times in 2016 compared to 2015, the Kazakh National Bank reported.

As much as $1.4 billion in cash were sold in Kazakhstan in Jan. – Dec. 2016. The US Dollar sales during the period were at the lowest level since 2001 when Kazakhstan started to collect the data.

Meanwhile, the net sales of Russian rubles decreased by 2 times in 2016 compared to 2015 and amounted to 88.1 billion rubles in cash.

The net sales of US dollars and Russian rubles (in tenge equivalent) almost equaled in 2016. Meanwhile in 2015 US dollar sales were 2.7 times higher than the Russian rubles sales.

The exchanges also sold 373 million euros in cash in 2016, a 40 percent decrease compared to 2015.

 Kazakhstan is the largest and economically developed country in Central Asia. oil revenues make up an important part of Kazakhstan's state budget.

Today Kazakhstan is among the top 15 countries in the world when it comes to essential oil reserves, having 3% of the world's total oil reserves. 62% of the country is occupied by oil and gas areas, and there are 172 oil fields, of which more than 80 are under development.