Kazakhstan's government has announced that it may well buy stock valued at around $5 billion in the nation's four biggest banks to boost capitalization and liquidity amid the global financial turmoil. The state expects to buy 25 percent of voting stock in the four biggest banks - BTA Bank, Kazkommertsbank, Halyk Savings Bank and Alliance Bank sell new shares, according to a statement from the prime minister's office today. The measures are designed ``to keep the volumes of lending for the domestic economy, and increase financing of small and medium enterprises,'' the statement said. Kazakhstan also passed laws last week aimed at preventing defaults at ailing banks as the global financial crisis deepens. Kazakh banks posted a 61 percent drop in profit in the first nine months as they set aside cash to cover bad loans as the economic growth ...

by Edward Hugh: Barcelona"The Kazakh government is ready to step in,'' Kazakhstan's Prime Minister Karim Masimov said this morning in a telephone interview with Bloomberg "The Kazakh banking system with the support of the government and central bank will fulfill all obligations to international investors.....We have our own specific plan to survive without any external support....I don't think we need support from the International Monetary Fund or overseas.'' Well that is good news, so at least we know that one of the CIS and CEE economies won't be looking to the IMF for bail-out support in this crisis which is presently growing by the day. So Kazakstan, that country which is reputedly host to reserves of approximately 95% of the elements in the periodic table, with a population of around 15 million housed on a surface area greater than the whole of Western Europe, is going to be able to look after itself. But hang on a minute, just where is Kazakhstan, and just what have they been getting up to over there, and why the hell should I take Karim Masimov's word for it, when just about all the other Iceland Look-alike show contestants seem to be saying the same? After all, didn't those extermely bright and able young people over at RBC Capital Markets in Toronto say in a report only last week that, along with Latvia, the country's $100 billion oil-led economy is among the most vulnerable to the present global credit crisis and the skid-row economic trajectories that go with it simply because of its excessive reliance on short-term foreign borrowing. And isn't it the case that the cost of protecting Kazakhstan government debt against default has more than doubled this month - to over 1,000 basis points (or 10%), the level for borrowers that investors term ``distressed,'' according to CMA Datavision credit-default swap prices. Only Ukraine, which as we know is already seeking IMF support, is classified as being a bigger risk among European emerging-market governments. Surely all those highly dedicated, bright, and extremely able young people who are doing all that trading know what they are about, don't they?