“It’s too early to draw conclusions”: Head of the National Bank of Kazakhstan on the fuel situation in Russia

The National Bank is closely monitoring macroeconomic processes taking place in Russia

Chairman of the National Bank of Kazakhstan, Timur SULEIMENOV, commented on how the fuel shortage in Russia might affect Kazakhstan, Kazinform reports.

He noted that Russia is a strategic trading partner of Kazakhstan, which is why the National Bank pays close attention to the macroeconomic developments there.

“For all macroeconomic events in Russia – changes in the key interest rate, tax reforms, or other matters – we, as the National Bank, watch closely and monitor them. For now, inflation in Russia is more or less within the corridor they had planned. But we’ll see what happens. I don’t want to make any premature conclusions, because it’s still unclear how the current situation is affecting Russia’s own economy,” Suleimenov said on the sidelines of the Government.

The head of the National Bank stated that a possible acceleration of inflation in Russia could affect Kazakhstan, but it is too early to speak about the scale of the impact.

“If inflation in Russia starts to rise and prices go up, then in some way this will also affect us as a trading partner. But whether they will rise, to what level, in what volume, and for which product groups – this needs to be observed. So, it’s not worth making far-reaching conclusions in advance,” Suleimenov concluded.

Earlier, Minister of Energy Yerlan AKKENZHENOV denied reports that the Russian side had asked Kazakhstan to supply gasoline due to the fuel shortage in the country.

Photo: Sergey Malgavko / TASS.

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