DUSHANBE, May 26, 2009, Asia-Plus — Tajikistan saw sharp currency devaluation today. The Tajik national currency, the somoni, fell nearly 6 percent against the dollar on May 26.
In a report revealed at a press conference in Dushanbe, the head of the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT) Sharif Rahimzoda revealed on May 26 that the exchanged rate of the somoni against the dollar, set by the central bank, has dropped from 4.3314:1 on May 25 to 4.60:1.
According to him, some countries, using their currency reserves, have decreased rates of their currencies by more than 25 percent; Tajikistan could not afford that.
“Country should have enough foreign currency reserves in order to remove pressure on domestic market and ensure external account following such a sharp leap and then to keep the national currency rate at a certain level,” said Rahimzoda, “We have not had such reserves, and therefore, we have decided to decrease the somoni rate gradually.”
The central bank head noted that last year’s external account, or import/export ratio, was 1.8:1. “In the meantime, the correlation of imports and exports has increased over the thirst three months of this year following the global financial crisis and reached, as of March 30, 2009, 3.8:1.”
Noting that changes in import/export ratio impact the rate of the national currency, Rahimzoda noted that they managed to decrease the import/import ratio in April to 1.5-1.8:1. He further added that the somoni rate should change in proportion to changes in rates of currencies of Tajikistan’s main trading partners – Russia and Kazakhstan.
