DUSHANBE, February 3, 2009, Asia-Plus — The current agiotage around a sharp rise in the exchange rate of USD against the Somoni will probably fall by early spring, Firouz Saidov, an expert from the Center for Strategic Studies, said in a interview with Asia-Plus.
According to him, a sudden spike in the USD exchange rate has resulted from the ongoing financial crisis and decrease in the exchange rate of Russian ruble (RR) against US dollar.
“The exchange rate of somoni is closely connected with RR as the main currency receipts to Tajikistan are connected with Russia, or remittances from our labor migrants working in Russian t be exact,” said the experts from Tajik think tank, “Besides, the Russian Federation is one of main trading partners of Tajikistan while a two-way trade between Tajikistan and Russia is conducted in USD.”
Because of the global financial crisis, demand for USD has increased in many countries of the world and this factor has contributed to increase in the USD exchange rate, Saidov said.
Under this situation, the government should increase production of consumer goods inside the country. “In my opinion, import of such goods as matches, salt, vegetable oil, fruit juices and some other similar goods cannot promote maintaining the somoni exchange rate,” the expert said.
The exchange rate of US dollar against somoni in the currency exchange offices has risen more than 11.4 percent over the past month — from 1:3.5 to 1:3.9.
