Asian Development Bank allocates loan to Kazakhstan worth $ 1 billion at LIBORrate plus 200 b.p. - bank

ASTANA, August 21 / TASS / The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a loan of $ 1 billion for assistance to Kazakhstan in the continuation of government programs to strengthen the economy, the bank said in a statement on Friday. The loan has been granted for 5 years, the interest rate on the loan is determined based on the cost of ADB lending, based on LIBOR plus 200 basis points, the statement said. "The loan will give Kazakhstan an opportunity to overcome the unintended consequences of the falling cost of oil prices and the negative impact of the economic recession in neighboring countries" ADB said. The bank noted that the loan will help the government of Kazakhstan to modernize infrastructure, support the development of programs to create jobs, support low-income families, among other projects. The loan is for 5 years and will be granted in two tranches of $ 500 million. On August 19, Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Karim Masimv said at a government telephone conference that the country will allow its national currency tenge to float freely, "The decision was made to start a new economic policy from August 20 on the basis of inflation targeting and to cancel the currency corridor," the premier cited a joint statement of the government and the National Bank. Earlier, the tenge has supported the financial regulator in the 170-198 tenge per US dollar range. Immediately after that, the dollar's value on the stock exchange increased by nearly 30% to 255.26 tenge. Read more