17:22, 12 February 2014 | GMT +5
Kazakhstan national currency devaluation not to impact Russian economy
GORKI. KAZINFORM - Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov downplayed the devaluation of Kazakhstan's national currency, the tenge, saying it will not impact the Russian economy.

"How can it affect us? We have no currency union," Shuvalov told reporters. Kazakhstan's National bank (NBK) announced its decision to stop supporting the exchange rate of the national currency /the tenge/ from Tuesday, February 11, by reducing exchange market interventions and interference in the processes forming the tenge exchange rate. "The National Bank expects the tenge's exchange rate to be at 185 tenge per one US dollar," the NBK said. As of February 11, the official tenge exchange rate was at 155.5 per US dollar. The NBK therefore weakened the national currency by some 20%, Kazinform refers to Itar-Tass.