NBK shifts to mirroring National Fund currency sales, altering market supply

September 13, 2026 at 06:40 PM2 min

This digest was compiled by AI from multiple sources — links to the originals are below.

The National Bank of Kazakhstan has begun buying foreign currency from the National Fund to fund budget transfers, then selling it gradually on the domestic market. The bank purchased $460 million in June and $500 million in July, and from September will sell $200-300 million monthly under the new 'mirroring' scheme. The change decouples budget payments from the timing of currency sales, reducing market predictability.

Key Facts

The government approved a 2027–2029 budget plan on August 25, 2026, proposing to allocate 5 trillion tenge from the National Fund for critical infrastructure.
In June 2026 the National Bank bought $460 million from the National Fund, and in July it bought another $500 million.
From September 2026 the National Bank will sell $200-300 million per month from these purchases, separate from its regular National Fund currency sales.
The National Bank calls the new arrangement 'mirroring operations with the National Fund', a term previously used for its gold purchase operations.

The New Mechanism

Under the previous system, the National Bank sold National Fund currency on the market when the budget needed tenge, with sales volumes tied to government transfer requests and spread across the month. Since June 2026, the National Bank can first buy currency from the National Fund to provide tenge to the budget, then sell the acquired currency gradually. The bank purchased $460 million in June and $500 million in July, and stated it would sell these volumes evenly on the domestic market by the end of the year. From September, the National Bank disclosed a monthly sales volume of $200-300 million for these mirroring operations, separate from its ordinary National Fund currency sales.

Gold vs National Fund

The term 'mirroring' was already used for gold operations, where the National Bank buys gold from Kazakh producers for tenge and then sells foreign currency to banks and companies to absorb the tenge it issued. With the National Fund, the sequence is similar but the tenge goes to the budget rather than to gold mining companies. In gold operations the National Bank withdraws tenge it created when buying metal, while in National Fund operations it provides a budget transfer and executes the currency leg later.

Market Implications

The National Bank says transfers are now calculated based on actual budget needs, accounting for uneven revenue and spending during the year. The currency portion of the operation is spread over a longer period, changing the schedule of currency supply to the market. The National Bank has not publicly disclosed how the unsold balance at year-end is treated. The economic effect of the spending itself remains: money directed to construction, wages, and imported equipment still becomes demand in the economy.