Comments from Kazakhstan central bank governor Daniyar Akishev
Kazakhstan central bank governor Daniyar Akishev was in the news a year ago when he directed the bank to make a big bet against the pound ahead of the Brexit referendum vote. The unusual move for a reserve manager netted a $1 billion profit for the bank and made him a bit of a celebrity.
He spoke with Bloomberg today and said he's cut allocations to the yen and euro in favor of the US dollar.
"We are constantly taking losses on the euro and the Japanese yen because of negative rates," Akishev said in Almaty. "We are keeping this portfolio, but we've redistributed some of the shares and slightly increased the allocation into dollars."
They're also looking at buying emerging market indexes in the national pension fund.
As for the pound, he likes it now.
"In the current conditions, it's clear there's a lot of political uncertainty now in the U.K.," Akishev said. But the outlook is strong for the pound, "considering the potential of the British economy."
