The meeting was attended by the country's major exporters, representatives of the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs "Atameken" and business circles of Kazakhstan.
Addressing the participants, the President drew attention to the difficult conditions in the global economy.
- The crisis is developing in all directions: the commodity, foreign exchange and financial markets have affected both developing and developed countries. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have once again lowered their forecast for global growth to 2.8% and 3.5%, respectively. The fall in world oil prices is continuing. From a peak of $ 115 in June last year they dropped to $48.5. There is a drop in the value of metals, which began in 2011, the price index fell by 45.5%. This year alone, the price of copper dropped from 6300 dollars to 5100 dollars per ton, - said the President of Kazakhstan.
The President stressed that in this situation the country had a choice of three options.
- First - doing nothing, staying the course and waiting for improvement. However, the price of such a policy is reduction of production, loss of jobs and depletion of reserves. Another option - gradual weakening of the tenge within the corridor. In poor and uncertain situation on foreign markets this option also requires large expenditure of foreign exchange reserves. Therefore, having considered all available options, the most appropriate is free floating exchange rate of tenge and transition to inflation targeting, - said the President of Kazakhstan.
