ALMATY, July 6 (THE GLOBE)
According to the press service of the National Bank of the RK, the gross international reserves of the bank measured in current prices fell by US$ 34.6 million (i.e. by 2.3%) in June to US$ 1.494 billion.
According to the press release of the NB, this development was primarily caused by the falling world prices for gold (by 3.6%) and changes of exchange rates of foreign currencies (SDR, EURO, DEM, and others) in respect to US dollar.
The National Bank has completely covered the sale of foreign currency to the Finance Ministry (required to repay the republic�s external debt) by purchases in the local hard currency market. The repayment of the external debt did not greatly influence the volume of the gold and hard currency reserves.
To replenish the gold and hard currency reserves, the National Bank will further conduct operations in the hard currency market. According to analysts, this will not result in an increase of the speed of the tenge�s devaluation.
For the time being, the NB announced that the level of international reserves is equal to three months of imports of products and services and is 1.2 times more than the total money supply.
ASTANA, July 7
(THE GLOBE)
By the end of the first half-a-year, the state revenues to the budget were 158.3 billion tenge (85.6% of the projected indices), including tax and non-tax revenues of 133.1 billion tenge.
For the period from January to June 1999, there was a monthly growth of the tax and non-tax revenues. In January 1999, the amount of tax and non tax revenues to the state budget was 15.5 billion tenge, in February � 17.5 billion tenge, in March � 21.1 billion, in April � 23.0 billion tenge, in May 26.0 billion, in June � 30.2 billion tenge. In May, the amount of tax collection reached 90.2% of the projected indices (while in January it was 72%).
According to the results of the six months, the greatest difference between the expected and actual indices is observed in excises on products produced in the republic (less 5.4 billion tenge), and in customs payments and duties (less 4.5 billion tenge).
At the same time, from January to June 1999 there was a monthly growth of practically all the main types of tax revenues. The monthly growth of the collected income tax on physical persons was 140%, of social tax � 115.2%, of VAT on the products manufactured in the country � 105%, of excises on products produced in Kazakhstan � 112.3%.
The regions with the worst realised indices of the state revenues for the 6 months of 1999 are observed in the Pavlodar region (63.3%), the Mangistau region (67.5%), the Kzylorda region (67.7%), Western Kazakhstan (75.3%), and Akmola region (76.4%).
The introduction of the system to monitoring the 98 biggest taxpayers of the republic has had some positive results. Revenues in April 1999 (when the system was installed) were 8.2% greater than in March, while the corresponding figure for May (in comparison with April) was 25% higher.
LONDON, July 6
(AFP)
The price of gold plunged further on Tuesday afternoon, falling below 258 dollars an ounce to set a new 20-year low following the sale by the Bank of England of 25 tonnes of its reserves.
The spot price for an ounce of gold was 257.35 dollars in mid-afternoon trading.
Analysts said that despite heavy interest in the Bank of England auction, which was more than five times oversubsribed, the market was beginning to wonder how many of the bidders had tendered �cheap� offers below the final auction price of 261.20 dollars an ounce.
�Most of those big bids were cheap bids, with very low prices,� said Andy Smith, a gold expert with Mitsui Bussan Commodities.
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