The strengthening of the national currency was witnessed at the auctions at the start of the week. The weighted average exchange rate on the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange amounted to 473.95 tenge yesterday. Compared to Friday data, the strengthening made up almost three tenge. Financial analyst Andrei Chebotaryov attributes this to the tax week. External factors tend to be negative, as crude oil price goes down, and dollar index goes up. The expert notes that the external factors do not significantly influence the tenge. The exchange rate may have been weakened in advance in order to smooth out the effects of external shocks in currency trading. He makes a forecast given the budget parameters for the current year. The calculated rate was set at 460 tenge per dollar. According to Chebotaryov, the national currency will probably remain at this level, if no external shocks are observed.
