DUSHANBE, February 28, Asia-Plus — Speaking to journalists in Dushanbe on February 27, Sharif Rahimzoda, the head of the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT), said that he expects inflation to be higher than earlier predicted 8 percent by the end of the year.
According to him, it is still difficult to make any forecast with regard for sharp rise in prices on commodity and stock exchanges.
“International prices of oil and other goods have risen sharply and this affects prices in our country, of course,” the central bank head said, adding that the government expects inflation to stand at 8 percent by the end of this year.
Rahimzoda said that he assumed that inflation rate would be higher than 8 percent. He added that he holds with the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (MoEDT) that inflation will stand at 12-13 percent by the end of the year.
“If to proceed from changes that took place last week, one may predict that prices of basic food products and other first-necessary goods will rise, and it will not depend on us and our policy,” said the NBT head. “We depend on external market, and therefore, I think inflation rate will be little higher than it was predicted before.”
According to central bank, by the end of 2007, inflation stood at 19.7 percent. During last year, prices of food products rose by 25.5 percent, prices of nonfoods rose by 7.5 percent and price of services rendered to the population rose by 17.1 percent.
