Kazakhstan's currency, the tenge, will not devalue by more than 5-6% this year, National Bank head Grigory Marchenko told Interfax news agency. He said that Inflation is targeted to drop to 6-8% this year from 9.8% in 2000. The central bank will be able to maintain the floating exchange rate policy this year that was introduced in April 1999: "The preservation of this regime will help maintain the price competitiveness of Kazakh goods on foreign markets," he said.

Marchenko said the National Bank