Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev told the government Monday it could use up to $10 billion from the $27.5 billion national oil fund in the next two years to stabilize the slowing economy, Kazakh state news agency Kazinform reported.
"I am giving the government carte blanche to realize a program to stabilize the economy and the financial system, and wide authority to make nonstandard decisions in the current environment," Nazarbayev was quoted as saying.
It wasn't immediately clear how the government would use these funds.
Nazarbayev's statement on allowing the government to use the national oil fund resources follows his decision last week to raise the retail deposit guarantee to 5 million tenge ($41,719) from KZT700,000.