DUSHANBE, August 19, 2008, Asia-Plus — In Tajikistan, inflation for January-July 2008 has stood at 9.87 percent, according to the State Committee for Statistics.
Over the report period, a monthly inflation rate in consumer’s sector has amounted to 1.41 percent, which is 0.74 percent more than in the same period of last year.
Prices of food products rose 11.2 percent in seven months to July 31. Prices of nonfoods and paid service rendered to the population have risen over the report period 3.1 percent and 18.2 percent respectively.
We will recall that inflation for the first six months of this year stood at 8.28 percent, while specialists expected inflation to stand at 8 percent by the end of this year.
A May 28 session of the government endorsed a draft prognosis of main directions of the country’s monetary policy for 2008. One of the main objectives of the document is to hold inflation at 15 percent by the end of the year and provide a 7 percent production growth.
It is to be noted that that during his visit to Tajikistan in early August, Mr. David Owen, Senior Advisor in the Middle East and Central Asia Department of the International Monetary Fund”s (IMF), noted that the macroeconomic situation in Tajikistan is improving after the past difficult winter; however, there are issues and problems that should be solved.
According to him, measures in the macroeconomic policy should be aimed at decreasing inflation in the second half of the year. He noted that measures taken by the government in the first half-year had been taken “quite rigorously and in a positive vein”. “If this policy continues, we are sure Tajikistan will succeed in decreasing the inflation rate in the second half of the year,” Mr. Owen said, adding that inflation is the main problem in conducting macroeconomic policy.
He noted that IMF’s recommendations to the official bodies consist in supporting those measures of macroeconomic policy that were concerted during adoption of the monitoring program. Among these measures are rigorous monetary policy and decreasing growth in monetary aggregates.
“If the official bodies are able to implement all measures provided for by the program, we will consider that they did all in their power because there are also additional factors, which do not depend on authorities, such as food and power prices,” said the IMF official. “The main task is to stick to that macroeconomic program, which was concerted and adopted. If there are no any unfavorable events regarding prices of raw materials, Tajikistan will succeed in decreasing the inflation rate to 15 percent in the second half of the year.”
