Kazakhstan devalues currency amid banking crisis

[LazyBoy]

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Kazakhstan devalued its currency by about 18% Wednesday, as the mineral-rich, central Asian country struggles to contain a banking crisis and deal with the impact of tumbling oil prices.


The National Bank of Kazakhstan decided to allow the country's currency, the tenge, to fall by around 18%. The central bank set a new target rate for the tenge at 150 versus the U.S. dollar, allowing the currency to fluctuate within 3%, up or down, from that level.

The devaluation comes only days after the Kazakh government vastly expanded its role in the financial sector by nationalizing two of the four largest banks and taking 25% stakes in two other lenders. The move also follows currency devaluations in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/kazakhstan-devalues-currency-amid-bank/story.aspx?guid={19FC179C-A3C5-4D4D-8B46-D5149831E128}


I have a personal interest in Kazakhstan -- I'll probably spend 2 months there sometime in the next few months. Anyone have any insights on what to expect?

[ProdigyofZen]

Re: Kazakhstan devalues currency amid banking crisis

lots of beautiful kazahk women?? thats what you should expect!

[jtabeb]

Re: Kazakhstan devalues currency amid banking crisis

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/kazakhstan-devalues-currency-amid-bank/story.aspx?guid={19FC179C-A3C5-4D4D-8B46-D5149831E128}


I have a personal interest in Kazakhstan -- I'll probably spend 2 months there sometime in the next few months. Anyone have any insights on what to expect?

It's beautiful country, from the air at least.

[mikedev10]

Re: Kazakhstan devalues currency amid banking crisis

Kazakhstan is the greatest country in the world!

All other countries are run by little girls!

Kazakhstan number one exporter of potassium!

All other Central Asian countries have inferior potassium!

Kazakhstan is the greatest country in the world!

[metalman]

Re: Kazakhstan devalues currency amid banking crisis

Kazakhstan is the greatest country in the world!

All other countries are run by little girls!

Kazakhstan number one exporter of potassium!

All other Central Asian countries have inferior potassium!

Kazakhstan is the greatest country in the world!

hah! i'm there. i love potassium! you haven't lived until you've thrown a chunk into you buddy's toilet at a party...

[pwcmba]

Re: Kazakhstan devalues currency amid banking crisis

I know many years back they were working on having better passenger trains than the US has at this point.

http://www.midwesthsr.org/promote_ho...dwide_kaza.htm

[jk]

Re: Kazakhstan devalues currency amid banking crisis

Yet another emerging market currency has been splattered today, as the Kazakh tenge has finally been devalued by 20% after months of pressure. The KZT was in vogue a couple of years ago as a sexy long....but another one of Macro Man's rules of thumb is never to trade a currency named after a movie character (the KZT is known as the 'Borat'.)

http://macro-man.blogspot.com/

[GRG55]

Re: Kazakhstan devalues currency amid banking crisis

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/kazakhstan-devalues-currency-amid-bank/story.aspx?guid={19FC179C-A3C5-4D4D-8B46-D5149831E128}


I have a personal interest in Kazakhstan -- I'll probably spend 2 months there sometime in the next few months. Anyone have any insights on what to expect?

It's a big country, and naturally varied. Depends where you are going. Almaty's just fine - large expat community you can plug into. Reasonable climate except in summer. Good beer, great vodka. Not anywhere near as cheap as it used to be at the beginning of the decade - although the currency devaluation will help. Astana boring as hell, but a necessary evil if you are actually running a business with assets in Kz. If you have to spend 2 months in the Caspian region take something to read, like War and Peace. You'll need it. Air Astana out of London or Dubai usually best way to get there - modern Boeing equipment, ex-BA management. And yes, because of the mix of Slavic, Mongaloid and European blood, some of the most stunningly exotic looking people anywhere.

Enjoy your time there. It's an interesting place.

[ProdigyofZen]

Re: Kazakhstan devalues currency amid banking crisis

I would interject and say Uzbek girls could be better!!! European and Slavic are basically the samething aside from Slavic being a different ethnic group than the northern europeans under the caucasoid race....

[LazyBoy]

Re: Kazakhstan devalues currency amid banking crisis

While we'll stop in Almaty, it looks like we'll spend our time in Karaganda (plans are in flux). It's not business, it's very personal.

Karaganda has over 400K people, but Wikipedia has this to say:

Karaganda is often used as the punchline in a popular joke in the former Soviet Union. Karaganda is fairly isolated in a vast area of uninhabited steppe, and is thought by many to be "the middle of nowhere". When used in the locative case (Караганде), the final syllable rhymes with the Russian word for "where" (где), as well as with a Russian obscenity used to answer to an unwanted question "Where?". Thus the exchange: "Where is it?" "In Karaganda!"

[whitetower]

Re: Kazakhstan devalues currency amid banking crisis

This is just a rumor created by the retarded Uzbeks.