Police in Kazakhstan have clamped down on a protest against the devaluation of the country’s currency. <br /><br />Several people were arrested on Sunday including, reportedly, two journalists.<br /><br />They had gathered close to the Independence Monument in central Almaty.<br /><br />There is anger nationwide after the Government devalued the tenge last week by around one-fifth against the dollar with immediate effect, meaning overnight peoples salaries and savings were worth a fifth less and the price of imports is set to go up.<br /><br />There was particular outrage as the National Bank chairman had denied a month previously that the country would stop propping up the tenge.<br /><br />The government said it had to be devalued because of uncertainty over the exchange rate of the Russian ruble.<br /><br />Public protest is unusual in Kazakhstan, but this is the seventh protest in Almaty within 10 days.<br /><br />President Nazarbayev has been in power since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Kazakhstan has never held an election recognised as free and fair by the West.
