Kazakhstan Provides Economy with More Than $500 Million in Loans
From the beginning of this year, the number of business loans in Kazakhstan has risen 1.4% or $424.4 million up to $35 billion in total. This data was revealed by Erbolat Dosaev, head of the National Bank of Kazakhstan at a government meeting.
According to Dosaev, the number of long-term loans has risen 1.8% or $544.9 million up to $30 billion. Short-term loans instead are down 1.4% or $72.4 million to $5 billion.
The rate for loans for companies in tenge has decreased from 12.5% in March 2020 to 12.1% in April; on short-term loans to 12% (12.4%) and for long-term loans, the rate instead has risen 13.3% (13.1%).
As of June 4, 2020, Kazakhstani small and mid-sized businesses that suffered from the state of emergency which was declared in Kazakhstan due to Covid-19, applied for $1.2 billion in soft loans. Some of these loans were approved for $497.3 in total, Dosaev said.
In addition, under the “Economy of Simple Things” program, Kazakhstani banks approved $755 million in loans, and $529.5 in loans were already issued. Another state program «7-20-25» (aimed to provide people with affordable housing) approved $544.9 million in loans with $462.8 million already issued. Within the “Baspana Hit” mortgage program, $615 million in loans were approved with $498.3 million in loans issued.
According to Dosaev, gold and currency reserves of the National Bank have risen 3.1% or $950 million in May up to $31.5 billion thanks to an increase in currency reserves by gains in National Bank currency accounts in commercial banks up to $600 million. Gold portfolio slightly decreased, losing $137 million because of gold sales for $250 million to National Fund and a minor surge in gold prices from $1717 to $1726 per ounce.
Total assets of the National Fund in May didn’t change significantly compared to the prior month and reached $58.5 billion. Last month the government made a transfer of $1.6 billion from the National Fund to the state budget.
To implement this step, the National Fund sold currency for about $1.1 billion. Later, foreign currency revenue in $384 million, as well as investment income in $670 million during the stock market’s partial recovery in May, reimbursed those sales. Gross international reserves increased that month by 1% up to $90 billion.
According to preliminary estimates, the current account of the balance of payments for the first quarter was with a surplus of $1.2 billion. The surplus of trade balance rose to $6.9 billion. Export of goods increased up to $581 million due to oil and gas condensate exports increasing by 18.5% – mostly as a result of a surge in supply (to 13.8%) beyond numbers figured at contracts. The import of goods instead is down $148 million because of limitations in cross border trade and the ban for traveling abroad.
As some media outlets reported, Kazakhstan plans to decrease microloan rates for companies to 6%. Loans up to $12,500 will be provided for working capital financing purposes and up to $50,000 for production needs.
