DUSHANBE, May 27, 2009, Asia-Plus — Speaking to reporters in Dushanbe on May 26, the head of the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT) Sharif Rahimzoda noted that devaluation of Tajik national currency, the somoni (TJS), has both positive and negative impacts on the country’s economy.
According to him, among negative impacts of the somoni devaluation is increase in prices of consumer goods. “However, we still cannot speak about the direct connection between the fall of the somoni against the dollar and increase in prices of consumer goods,” said Rahimzoda, “Fore example, the somoni fell 1.0 percent against the dollar in 2007 while consumer goods prices decreased by 12 percent. Last year, the somoni increased by 1.0 percent against the dollar and the consumer goods prices fell more than 19 percent. Over the first four months of this year, the somoni has fallen nearly 15 percent against the dollar while the consumer goods prices have fallen 1.0-2.0 percent over the report period. In other words, it is not always justified to connect increase in consume prices directly with the currency devaluation.”
The central bank head is sure that change in the exchange rate of the somoni proportional to changes in rates of currencies of our main trading partners protects domestic producer and provides competitiveness of our goods in domestic market and this is one of positive impacts of the somoni devaluation.
“We will try to keep the somoni rate, and not only against the dollar but also against currencies of our trading partners, through regulating monetary aggregates being in circulation,” Rahimzoda said.
