Kazakhstani banks purchased 1.7 billion euros in the over-the-counter market in July, a 98% increase over June, according to the statistics published by the National Bank of Kazakhstan.
The majority of deals, 98.4%, were transactions between Kazakhstani banks, with only €37.1 million of the transactions involving foreign parties.
The banks purchased €17.5 million, which is 63.3% less than in May. June’s indicator turned out to be the smallest this year, while July’s, on the contrary, was the biggest by solid margins.
A drastic increase of yuan purchasing transactions could be noticed. The banks bought 3.9 billion yuan in July; in comparison, there were 131.5 million yuan bought in June, showing an increase of 29.6 times. Kazakhstani banks also expressed interest in Russian rubles: 18.9 billion of the currency was purchased compared to 12.8 billion rubles a month earlier. They also bought $9.9 billion, while in June $10 billion was purchased.
The only currency that wasn’t purchased by the Kazakhstani banks in July but considered by the National Bank was the British pound. From January to April, £100,000 was purchased, but then the transactions stopped.
The specialists interviewed by RBC, a Russian media outlet, explained the increase in yuan purchasing with a partial transition of Russian companies to the Kazakhstani over-the-counter market after the sanctions hit the Moscow Exchange. The limitations resulted in US dollar and euro trade termination at MOEX.
«The companies might use the tenge they earn directly from the export to Kazakhstan or purchase from the exporters’ banks [in Russia] to buy yuan in Kazakhstan and use the currency from the local accounts to import the goods from China. This might be faster than making settlements from the Russian yuan accounts,» Bloomberg economist Alex Isakov said.
The experts were not able to explain the increased demand for euros.
