Dollarization of bank deposits down in Kazakhstan

ASTANA. KAZINFORM - The volume of deposits in Kazakh banks decreased by 6.2 percent to 17.045 trillion tenges (315.2 tenges = $1) in January-February 2017, Kazakh National Bank said in a message.

The volume of deposits in foreign currency decreased by 11.5 percent, the volume of deposits in the national currency increased by 0.3 percent in this period.

As a result, the level of dollarization of deposits decreased from 54.6 percent in December 2016 to 51.5 percent in February 2017. The share of legal entities' foreign currency deposits fell from 49.1 percent to 45.8 percent in January-February. The share of individuals' foreign currency deposits decreased from 62 percent to 58.8 percent.

Interest rates on deposits decreased in the reporting period: from 12 percent to 11.8 percent for individuals' deposits in tenge; from 2.6 percent to 2.4 percent individuals' deposits in foreign currency; from 10.5 percent to 10.2 percent for legal entities' deposits in tenge and from 1.6 percent to 1.4 percent for legal entities' deposits in foreign currency, trend.az reports.