DUSHANBE, October 22, 2010, Asia-Plus — The sustainability of the exchange rate of the Tajik national currency, the somoni (TJS), depends on, first of all, changes in exchange rates of currencies of the main economic partners of Tajikistan, Sharif Rahimzoda, the head of the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT), said.
According to him, Tajikistan watches exchange rates of currencies of Kazakhstan and Russia that are the main economic partners of Tajikistan. Any changes in exchange rates of currencies of these countries may affect sustainability of the somoni exchange rate, Tajik central bank head noted.
“Over the past nine months, the exchange rates of Kazakh and Russian currencies have remained rather stable,” stressed Rahimzoda, “Therefore, the somoni exchange rate against USD has not undergone any peculiar changes over the report period. In January-September this year, the somoni has fallen only 0.25 percent against the dollar.”
He added that the currency sustainability also depended on the level of support for it. “The more we throw funds into circulation, the more probability that the national currency will devaluate against the dollar,” Rahimzoda said.
He stressed that Tajik central bank had a program to control the amount of cash in circulation. “Of course, sometimes the somoni exchange rate goes out of our control,” said the NBT head, “There have been situations, for example, when demand for the Russian ruble has led to change in the exchange rate of the somoni against the dollar. At moments as these, we usually make intervention. It happened that, we purchased several million dollars or Russian rubles per day.”
The objective of the NBT is to keep stable exchange rate of the national currency, because increase in the exchange rate of the somoni against the dollar may affect domestic producer and national economy, leading to increase in imports into the country, Rahimzoda noted.
