The share of the bilateral trade with China in Tajikistan’s external trade turnover has risen to 15.3 percent.
Despite an official statement about the closure of the Tajik-Chinese border in an effort to prevent the spread of coronavirus, the bilateral trade between Tajikistan and China over the first two months of this year has risen more than a third compared to the same period last year.
Over the first two months of this year, a two-way trade between Tajikistan and China has valued at 107.495.9 million U.S. dollars (a 35 percent increase compared to January-February 2019), according to the Agency for Statistics under the President of Tajikistan.
This consisted of Tajikistan’s exports to China estimated at US$10.181.4 and Tajikistan’s imports from China worth US$97.314.5 million.
The Ministry of Transport (MoT) of Tajikistan said in late January that the Tajik-Chinese border has been temporarily closed in an effort to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (MoEDT) had earlier said that Chinese goods are arriving in Tajikistan through the third countries.
According to some officially unconfirmed reports, freight traffic is still continuing to be carried out through the Kulma crossing, which is the only border crossing point on the Tajik-Chinese borer.
In all, Tajikistan’s external trade turnover over the first two months of this has amounted to 700.5 million U.S. dollars, which was 114.8 percent of the January-February 2019 level, or 90.1 million dollars more, according to the Agency for Statistics under the President of Tajikistan.
In January-February this year, the trade balance was negative and amounted to 413.3 million U.S. dollars.
Exports of goods in January-February have reportedly amounted to 143.6 million U.S. dollars, which was 11.7 percent or 15.1 million U.S. dollars more than in the sme period last year.
Imports of goods into the country over the same two-month period have amounted to 556.9 million U.S. dollars, which was 15.6 percent or 75 million U.S. dollars more than in January-Febraury last year.
In January-February, Tajikistan reportedly had trade relations with 86 countries of the world, including ten CIS nations.
Over the first two months of this year, the major trading partners of Tajikistan were Russia (the two-way trade between Tajikistan and Russia has valued at 172 million US dollars over the report period – an 11 percent increase), China (107.495.9 million U.S. dollars) and Kazakhstan (164 million U.S. dollars – a 30 percent increase).
Over the same two-month period, a to-trade with Iran has valued at 6.385 million U.S. dollar (a 44.9 percent reduction compared to January-February 2019).
The bilateral trade between Tajikistan and Turkmenistan has fallen over the report period 74.8 percent and has been estimated at only 945,500 U.S. dollars.
