The Asian Development Bank 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, Tass reported. “The loan will give Kazakhstan an opportunity to overcome the unintended consequences of the falling oil prices and the negative impact of the economic recession in neighboring countries” ADB said. On August 19, Prime Minister Karim Massimov said at a 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.
