DUSHANBE, March 13, 2015, Asia-Plus — The National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT) stops the direct selling of the foreign currency to population due to disorders that have taken place at the currency exchanges offices, the first deputy head of Tajik central bank, Jamshed Yusufiyon, announced at a news conference in Dushanbe on March 13.
According to him, additional currency injections into the cash market will be carried out through commercial banks.
“We want to make availability of the foreign currency wider. I hope these measures will work,” the NBT deputy head noted.
“To avoid monetary speculation the NBT on March 12 held a meeting with senior representatives of commercial banks,” said Yusufiyon. “A relevant agreement was signed with them.”
Tajik central bank will monitor the process and take further necessary steps, he noted, adding that the NBT is making interventions every day.
The daily intervention amount reportedly ranges from 1.5 million U.S. dollars to 3 million U.S. dollars depending on the market demands.
Yusufiyon noted that the NBT is not going to let the Tajik national currency, the somoni (TJS), go free floating.
“We will not curb the exchange rate but we will control in order to avoid sudden changes in the exchange rate,” he said.
Yusufiyon attributed the current situation in the country’s currency market to complication of political situation in the region as a result of which the West imposed sanctions on Russia, which is one of the major trading partners of Tajikistan.
According to data from Tajik central bank, the somoni lost more than 10 percent of its value against the dollar since the beginning of the year.
The value of TJS has continued to depreciate against USD over the past week, registering an average market purchase rate of the dollar against the somoni 1:6.3975 on March 13, up from 1: 6.1650 on March 6.
On March 13, the highest market purchase rate of the dollar was reported in Kulob (Khatlon province) – 1:6.55. In Dushanbe, market purchase rate of the dollar on March 13 was 1:6.28.
Tajik central bank notes that the somoni lost 10.2 percent of its value against the dollar last year.
