Kazakhstan: Food Prices Soar as the Tenge Tumbles

The cost of food in Kazakhstan has risen by 40 percent since the national currency was devalued, officials have acknowledged. According to research carried out by President Nursultan Nazarbayev's Nur Otan party, the cost of medicines has also risen by 60 percent.

"Due to the devaluation of the tenge, a rise in prices for food and consumer goods has been observed. In many regions, the rise in the prices for food is from 30 to 40 per cent. No matter how hard we will try to deny it, the problem still exists and it has badly affected ordinary people," party secretary Yerlan Karin said.

The tenge was devalued by the National Bank on February 4. For most of 2008, the exchange rate hovered around a level of 121 tenge per dollar. The bank's chairman, Grigory Marchenko, has pledged not to let it fall below 150 tenge per dollar, but on February 23, the Kazakhstani currency hit that benchmark, the Kazakh stock exchange said in a press release.