Applications for early withdrawal of pension savings worth over 1 trillion tenge approved — Erbolat Dossaev

The main condition for the recovery of the world economy is the rate of vaccination of the population. This was announced by the Chair of the National Bank of Kazakhstan Erbolat Dossaev at the government session chaired by the Prime Minister Askar Mamin.

“In Kazakhstan, the business activity index for the first time since December 2019 entered the growth zone, having increased from 49.0 to 50.6, due to the improvement in the service sector and industry with a decrease in activity in construction,” the chair of the National Bank said.

In March of 2021, inflation decelerated from 7.4% to 7.0% due to the deceleration of food inflation from 11.6% to 10.7% amid a slowdown in the growth of prices for bakery products, meat, sugar and fruits and vegetables.

Inflation of paid services slowed down from 3.9% to 3.7%, which was the result of a decrease in tariffs for certain types of housing and communal services.

“By the end of 2021, inflation is expected to decrease to the upper limit of the target corridor of 4-6%,” Dossaev noted.

Key trading partners of Kazakhstan are the EU countries, Russia and China. At the same time, the bulk of imports comes from Russia, which accounts for 34.9%. Food imports from Russia are showing stable growth, having increased in 2020 by 8.4% compared to 2019 and amounted to $1.9 billion.

“The assets of the National Fund at the end of March of 2021 amounted to $57.1 billion, having decreased by $523 million over the month due to the excess of allocation over the inflow of funds to the fund,” said the head of the financial regulator.

In March of this year, $695 million were sold to allocate targeted and guaranteed transfers for 322 billion tenge or $765 million.

Income to the National Fund in March amounted to only 65 billion tenge, including in foreign currency $100.6 million or 42.7 billion tenge in equivalent. The positive investment income of the National Fund for the month amounted to $72 million or 0.13%. At the same time, for the 1st quarter of this year. investment income amounted to $182 million.

Against the background of growth in shares, as well as a positive correction of bonds and gold, investment income from the beginning of the year to April 9 of this year. increased and amounted to $580 million.

Gold shows high volatility, since the beginning of April the price has grown to $1,744 per ounce, or by 3.5%, which ensured the recovery of the gold portfolio by $756 million.

Decrease in assets in freely convertible currency in March 2021 amounted to $317 million, including due to a decrease in funds on correspondent accounts and deposits of the NBRK's clients by $335 million in connection with the redemption of Eurobonds of second-tier banks, as well as financing of projects by the Interstate Bank. The payment of the state debt amounted to $72 million.

As a result, the gross international reserves in March of 2021 amounted to $90.64 billion.

Pension assets of the UAPF since the beginning of 2021 decreased by 0.3 trillion tenge or 2.3% to 12.6 trillion tenge due to early withdrawal of funds by the population. The volume of pension contributions made by contributors amounted to 299.1 billion tenge, pension payments — 77.1 billion tenge.

As Dossaev added, the amount of accrued investment income from the beginning of this year amounted to 367.2 billion tenge. According to the results of the first quarter of this year, a yield of 2.8% was obtained with an inflation rate of 1.9%. Real profitability is provided as a result of investment activities, as well as market and exchange rate revaluation of pension assets.

As of April 9, 2021, the number of executed applications of depositors for early withdrawal of pension savings amounted to 210.8 thousand for the amount of more than 1.0 trillion tenge. At the same time, 99.4% of the withdrawn savings are allocated to solve housing issues.

Pension savings in the amount of 2.5 billion tenge were transferred to trust management in 4 management companies.

In the context of regions, the Mangystau region, the cities of Almaty and Nur-Sultan account for 60.2% of the total volume of seizures.

Deposits in the banking system since the beginning of the year have increased by 2.1% to 22.5 trillion tenge, incl. in national currency — by 3.9% or 535.0 billion tenge to 14.4 trillion tenge, in foreign currency decreased by 0.9% or 77.5 billion tenge to 8.2 trillion tenge.

“The level of dollarization of deposits continued to decline, reaching 36.2% in February 2021 — the lowest level since 2013,” the chair of the National Bank said.

To support the economy, the implementation of the anti-crisis initiatives of the Head of State continues. According to the Economy of Simple Things program, as of April 9, 2021, the second-tier banks received 1,472 applications for 1.1 trillion tenge, STB issued 874 loans for 607.3 billion tenge

Under the program of concessional lending to business entities as of April 9, 2021, entrepreneurs submitted 2,956 applications for 745.6 billion tenge, issued 7,532 loans for 751.2 billion tenge, incl. 2,863 loans for 178.9 billion tenge at the expense of money received from the repayment of previously issued loans. Full disbursement of funds is expected in the 2nd quarter of 2021, by the end of 2021, financing of 8,500 projects for 800 billion tenge is expected.

Under the 7-20-25 program, as of April 8, 2021, 56,994 applications for 681.3 billion tenge were received, of which 26,010 loans were issued for 308.8 billion tenge.

Under the Baspana Hit market mortgage program, as of April 8, 2021, 119,103 applications for 1.1 trillion tenge were received, 50,109 loans were issued for 451.3 billion tenge. Taking into account the increase in funding for the program to 600 billion tenge, the completion of its development is expected by the end of 2021.

The National Bank continues to work on building the National Payment System, which consists of two main components.

“For the development of the system of instant payments, the necessary regulatory and legal framework has been formed, which determines its status and features of its functioning, together with the market participants, a corresponding Roadmap has been approved, scenarios for making payments between various categories of customers have been determined. At present, on behalf of the Head of State, together with government agencies, work is also underway to organize a pilot project based on the system for the introduction and use of a citizen's social wallet. The pilot implementation of the system is planned for the 4th quarter of this year,” he said.

As part of the construction of an interbank system for processing tenge card transactions within the country, a corresponding Roadmap was approved jointly with the market, functional and technical requirements for the system were developed.

Negotiations are also ongoing with international payment systems to determine a model for interaction with the local system of Kazakhstan. Taking into account the incoming proposals, the National Bank will determine the most effective mechanism for the operation of the local system.

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