87% of withdrawn savings to be used by citizens to solve housing issues — National Bank of Kazakhstan

As of Feb 12, 2020, 115,608 applications were accepted for withdrawal of part of pension savings in the amount of 1,855.9 billion tenge. This was announced by the Chair of the National Bank Erbolat Dossaev at the government session chaired by Prime Minister Askar Mamin, where the results of socio-economic development and execution of the republican budget for January 2021 were discussed.

The monitoring of enterprises carried out by the National Bank for the 4th quarter of 2020 indicates the continued low rates of economic activity in the real sector, due to a decrease in investment activity and production volumes. At the same time, there is a recovery in demand and an acceleration in the growth of prices for finished products, a decrease in interest rates on loans. The composite leading indicator is showing signs of a gradual recovery in economic activity in the real sector.

Annual inflation in January of this year slowed down to 7.4%. Food inflation continues to make the largest contribution to the overall rise in prices. The annual growth in food prices accelerated from 11.3% in December 2020 to 11.4% in January 2021 against the backdrop of persisting imbalances in certain commodity markets.

The dynamics of the non-food and service components of inflation remains relatively stable amid weak consumer demand. Non-food inflation slowed down from 5.5% to 5.3%, inflation of paid services — from 4.2% to 4.1%.

In connection with the acceleration of food inflation since November 2020, the chair of the National Bank of Kazakhstan made a recommendation to pay special attention to the rise in prices of the most sensitive food products.

In the regional context, inflation has significant disparities. Thus, in the Mangystau region it exceeded the republican level by 1.3 percentage points, in the Karaganda region and the city of Nur-Sultan — by 0.4 percentage points.

Food inflation above 12% was recorded in the Karaganda, Atyrau, Pavlodar regions at the national level of 11.4%. In terms of non-food inflation, the Mangistau region is again leading with 6.9% at 5.3% in the country. Inflation of paid services above 5% was recorded in Mangystau region, Nur-Sultan city, Aktobe region at a national inflation of 4.1%.

“In January 2021, the growth in oil prices was due to the decision of OPEC + to cut oil production in February-March 2021, the positive dynamics of price growth continued in February, oil prices reached $63.3 per barrel,” Erbolat Dossaev said.

The conversion of assets of the National Fund within the framework of allocating transfers to the republican budget, the sale of a part of export foreign exchange earnings by companies of the quasi-public sector had a positive impact on the tenge exchange rate.

According to the results of trading on the exchange on Feb. 15, 2021, the tenge exchange rate amounted to 416.92 tenge per US dollar, having strengthened since the beginning of the month by 1.7%. The current account of the balance of payments, according to preliminary data, in 2020, in line with the forecasts of the National Bank of Kazakhstan, developed with a deficit of $ 5.9 billion, which is less than the deficit of 2019 by $1.3 billion due to a decrease in income payable to foreign investors.

As the head of the National Bank explained, the main reason for the current account deficit is a decrease in exports of goods due to a decrease in exports of oil and gas condensate. The decrease in imports of goods was moderate and was associated with a decrease in imports of investment and intermediate goods.

As for the assets of the National Fund, at the end of January 2021, they amounted to $57.7 billion, since the beginning of this year. having decreased by $1 billion for the following reasons:

  • receipts to the National Fund amounted to 43 billion tenge, of which foreign exchange receipts amounted to $56.2 million or 24 billion in tenge equivalent;
  • since the beginning of the year, $720 million was sold to ensure the allocation of targeted and guaranteed transfers for 381 billion tenge;
  • due to a decrease in investor risk appetite, the fall in the MSCI World stock index in January of this year. amounted to — 1%. The investment income of the National Fund for the same period amounted to (-) $340 million, or -0.59%.

Volatility in stock markets increased in January due to the heterogeneity of economic recovery, as well as the surge in shares of unprofitable companies amid the activity of non-professional investors on trading platforms.

“At the same time, in early February, there was a recovery in the stock market, and in the first 2 weeks of February 2021, the investment income of the National Fund amounted to $800 million, having won back the fall in January this year,’’ the head of the financial regulator reported.

Gold and foreign exchange reserves remained almost unchanged and at the end of January of this year, according to preliminary data, amounted to $35.6 billion. The decrease in the gold portfolio as a result of the decline in the price of gold was offset by the growth of assets in freely convertible currency.

Assets in foreign currency grew due to the inflow of funds from the ADB loan, which was partially offset by the repayment of the state debt, as well as the outflow of STB funds from accounts with the NBK, which was associated with the fulfillment of obligations to repay foreign currency bonds of one of the STBs for $500 million.

Total international reserves amounted to $93.3 billion, having decreased by $1 billion since the beginning of the year. Pension assets as of Febю 1, 2021, amounted to 13.1 trillion tenge, having increased since the beginning of the year by 213.9 billion tenge or 1.7%.

The amount of accrued investment income since the beginning of this year amounted to 178.5 billion tenge, the volume of pension contributions — 88.8 billion tenge.

In January 2021, a yield of 1.4% was ensured with inflation of 0.6%. Over the past 12 months, the return on pension assets amounted to 12.1% with an inflation rate of 7.4%.

Real profitability is provided as a result of investment activities, as well as market and exchange rate revaluation of the foreign exchange portfolio, the share of which has been gradually increased and maintained at 30% to expand the geography of investments by countries and issuers, improve the quality and liquidity of the portfolio.

In order to timely fulfill obligations to depositors for early withdrawal of funds, the National Bank maintains the current liquidity of the portfolio of pension assets, the level of which as of Feb. 1, 2021, is amounted to 446.8 billion tenge.

In January of this year after the completion of preparatory work related to the integration of information systems, the UAPF began accepting applications for the withdrawal of a part of pension savings by citizens.

As of Feb. 12, 2021, 115,608 applications were accepted for the amount of 1,855.9 billion tenge. Of these, accepted for processing, incl. 78,074 applications were approved for the amount of 423.6 billion tenge.

On Feb. 12, 2021, the UAPF transferred lump-sum pension payments on 75,186 applications in the amount of 408.2 billion tenge.

Citizens intend to use 87% of the withdrawn savings to address housing issues, of which:

  • 45.5% — to purchase housing;
  • 28.3% — for repayment of mortgage loan debt;
  • 10.5% — for obtaining a mortgage in Otbasy Bank, for an initial payment in STB;
  • 2.3% — for individual housing construction, mortgage refinancing, debt repayment under a lease with the right to purchase and other purposes.

In addition, as the chair of the National Bank reported, the implementation of anti-crisis initiatives of the Head of State continues to support the economy.

According to the Economy of Simple Things program, as of Feb. 12, 2021, entrepreneurs made 1,410 applications for almost 1.1 trillion tenge, of which banks approved 889 applications for 731.5 billion tenge, issued 810 loans worth 552 billion tenge.

Under the program of concessional lending to business entities as of Feb. 12, 2021, entrepreneurs submitted 2,632 applications for 672.3 billion tenge, of which 1,844 applications for 526.2 billion tenge were approved, 5,879 loans were issued for 596.3 billion tenge, incl. 2,479 loans for 138.5 billion tenge at the expense of money received from the repayment of previously issued loans.

Stay updated about the events of the Prime Minister and the Government of Kazakhstan - subscribe to the official Telegram channel

Subscribe