Azernews.Az

By Vusala Abbasova

Kazakhstan's gold reserves including gross reserves of the National Bank and the National Fund amounted to $98.686 billion according to officials results published in April 2015.

Kazakhstan's gold reserves decreased by 0.2% over the month of April and by 3.7% since the beginning of the year, according to the center of business information "Capital".

The Kazakhstan National Fund assets amounted to $69.949 billion - an increase of 0.3% over the past month and down by 4.9% since the beginning of the year.

The expected economic growth of Kazakhstan did not manifest so far this year, even though reports from the World Bank clearly established positive expectations.

A WB report read that although the country GDP had plunged in the first quarter, forecasts predicted a strong recovery would take place to finally give way to growth. "It is estimated that growth will stand at 1.3 percent in 2015 and then increase to 2.8 and 3.9 percent in 2016 and 2017, respectively," read the report.

In fact, the National Bank gross international reserves decreased by 1.3% in April 2015 to reach28.737 billion dollars (a drop by 0.6% - since the beginning of the year).

The devaluation of the Russian ruble deeply affected the country's economy as it led to deterioration in trades with Russia. Added to that the fall in oil prices, Kazakhstan found itself in difficult waters indeed.

The National Bank’s net international reserves decreased by 1.4% over the past month and by 0.01% since the beginning of the year to $27.964 billion.

As a result, assets in foreign currency decreased by 2.95% to $20.961 billion in April 2015 (a drop of 2.6%since the beginning of the year), gold assets increased by 3.4% to $7.777 billion over the past month (a drop of 5.16%since the beginning of year).

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