DUSHANBE, October 21, 2010, Asia-Plus — Tajikistan’s gold and currency reserves rose 60 percent in nine months to October 1, 2010, reaching 553.3 million U.S. dollars, Sharif Rahimzoda, the head of the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT), told reporters in Dushanbe on October 21.
According to him, major part of the country’s gold and currency reserves is deposited in foreign banks. “In Tajikistan, we now keep the gold and currency reserves for only some 100 million U.S. dollars and these funds are in a permanent circulation,” Tajik central bank head noted.
“Since the beginning of the year, NBT has purchased 1,314 kilograms of gold, including 614 kilograms purchased in the domestic market and 700 kilograms purchased in the external market,” Rahimzoda said.
He also noted that remittances to Tajik banks rose 27.7 percent in the year to October 1, 2010 reaching more than 1.6 billion U.S. dollars. “However, we are still far from the pre-crisis level,” said the NBT head, “The inflow of remittances must see a growth of at least 45 percent to reach the 2008 level.”
As of September 30, the country’s money holding amounted to more than 2.7 billion somoni.
“Over the first nine months of this year, the Tajik national currency, the somoni, has fallen only 0.25 percent against the dollar,” the central bank head said.
