As of Julye 1, 20204, the share of Tajikistan’s mutual settlements with CIS member nations for exports and imports of goods and services in dollars has decreased to 36 percent, while the share of Tajikistan’s mutual settlements with the CIS member nations in the Russian rubles has increased to 60 percent, the head of the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT), Firdavs Tolibzoda, told reporters in Dushanbe on August 8.
For comparison, in June of 2021, Tajikistan made 66.4 percent of mutual settlements with the CIS member nations in dollars, and only 30.5 percent of its mutual settlements with the CIS countries were made in the Russian rubles.
Tolibzoda explained this change as being due to the “state of uncertainty in the global economy,” which, he said, “still exists, and all countries, including Tajikistan, are trying to mitigate risks.”
“Recently, there has been a trend of decreasing transactions between trade partners from CIS countries in US dollars. While the share of payments in US dollars was 60% not long ago, by the end of June 2024, this share had decreased to 36%, while 60% of settlements were made in the Russian rubles,” said the NBT head.
According to the head of the National Bank, the volume of payments in the national currency during this period "slightly increased and remains within 1%."
After Russia launched the so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine in late February 2022 and Western countries imposed economic sanctions on Moscow, Russia started conducting settlements with its trade partners, including Tajikistan, in the national currencies.
In June 2022, the Tajik government adopted a special anti-crisis program, which is aimed to import essential goods and some raw materials from abroad in the Russian rubles and the Chinese yuan, and to use these currencies in international transactions to minimize the impact of the dollar exchange rate.
One of the points in the Plan of Actions to Prevent the Impact of Potential Risks on the National Economy stated that in the contracts of companies importing essential goods such as wheat, fuel, vegetable oil, wood, cardboard, ferrous metals (rebar), and raw materials for the production of domestic goods, payments in US dollars “should be replaced” by the Russian rubles or yuan.
