DUSHANBE, February 28, Asia-Plus — The gold and foreign currency reserves held by the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT) have to date amounted to $328 million, Tajikistan’s central bank head Sharif Rahimzoda announced at a press conference in Dushanbe on February 27.
“Of this amount, $53 million are our gold and platinum being kept in the Swiss banks and $257 million are reserves, which have not yet been discounted as we should carry out the second assay in European country, which will grant us certificate,” the NBT head said.
Mr Rahimzoda also noted that exchange rate of Tajik national currency (somoni) has become stronger over the past several months. Among possible factors that contributed to this, he named recent holidays in China. “Because of the holidays, Tajik businesspeople did not go to China for goods, and therefore, they did not acquire dollars,” he said, adding that somoni will fall when people begin to acquire dollars.
Rahimzoda also noted that he had quite different view of monetary policy of the country. “We ought to gradually make shift to determining value of the national currency against currencies of those countries with which we have economic relations. We have no economic relations with the United States; we have relations with European countries, and our aluminum and cotton mainly go to the European countries.” said the central bank head. “Changes in prices in countries of our partners affect prices in our countries. If Uzbekistan raises gas prices, they will definitely affect prices in our economy.”
According to the NBT, fluctuations in value of the somoni against the US dollar had not exceeded 0.8% during 2007. During last year, US dollar had risen from 3,4582 somonis to 3.4862 somonis.
