Foreign Exchange Market
(August, 2007)
In August, the situation in the foreign exchange market remained unchanged, only in the last week of the month there was a short-term increase in USD non-cash exchange rate due to the increase in commercial banks’ demand for foreign currency for payment of clients’ contracts on goods and services import.
On the whole for the month, the weighed average USD exchange rate increased by 0.03 per cent in the inter-bank currency auctions and made 37.8118 KGS/USD as of the late August. The USD exchange rate increased by 0.02 per cent and made 37.8076 KGS/USD.
The total volume of transactions in the currency auctions increased by 27.2 per cent in the reporting month compared to the previous month, and made USD 73.5 Million. The growth was caused both by increase in the volume of the National Bank’s transactions by 22.1 per cent, making USD 45.8 Million, and by increase in the volume of inter-bank transactions by 36.4%.
The USD exchange rate in exchange offices in the first half of August varied in the narrow range, and its considerable growth was marked in the second half of August due to the
increase in demand for foreign currency. On the whole for the month, the USD selling rate in exchange offices increased by 0.8 per cent to make 38.093 KGS/USD. At the same time, in average for the month, it was by 0.06 KGS higher than the weighed average rate in the inter-bank currency auctions. A daily average fluctuation of USD selling in exchange offices increased from 0.02 per cent to 0.03 per cent, and the average margin on the USD buying/selling transactions increased from 0.26 to 0.30 per cent.
The EUR exchange rate dynamics in exchange offices, as usual, was formed under the influence of its variations in external markets. After some increase in the first half of August, the exchange rate decreased rather intensively, but in the second half of the month its dynamic changed again, and the exchange rate was generally growing. On the whole for the month, the EUR selling rate in exchange offices decreased by 0.25 per cent and made 51.7844 KGS/EUR. Daily average fluctuation of EUR selling rate increased in August from 0.13 per cent to 0.16 per cent, and the average margin on buying-selling transactions also increased from 0.42 per cent to 0.49 per cent.
RUR selling rate in exchange offices varied in the range from 1.467 KGS/RUR to 1.479 KGS/RUR in August; in the second half of the month its decrease prevailed. On the whole for the month, it decreased by 0.1 per cent and made 1.4694 KGS/RUR as of the late August. Daily average fluctuation of the RUR selling rate increased from 0.10 per cent to 0.12 per cent; the average margin slightly decreased from 0.64 per cent to 0.66 per cent.
The KZT selling rate in exchange offices was mainly decreasing during the reporting month, and the most notable decrease was in the end of the month. On the whole for August, the KZT selling rate in exchange offices was down by 3.2 per cent and amounted to 0.295 KGS/KZT as of the late month. At the same time, the daily average fluctuation of the KZT exchange rate increased from 0.13 per cent to 0.19 per cent, and the average margin for the month increased from 0.7 to 0.9 per cent.
The total volume of transactions for currency buying and selling in exchange offices decreased in August by 1.3 per cent and made KGS 2,268.1 Million. At the same time, there was a decrease in the volume of transactions with USD, KZT and other currencies, and an increase in the volume of transactions with EUR and RUR. As a result, the share of transactions with USD and RUR were down to 62.6 per cent and 12.5 per cent, correspondingly, and with EUR and KZT the shares were up to 9.6 per cent and 14.6 per cent, correspondingly. The share of transactions with the other currencies in the structure of exchange rate transactions remained at the level of 0.8 per cent.
