Tajikistan last year bought more than three tons of gold, Jamshed Nourmahmadzoda, the head of the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT), told reporters in Dushanbe on February 9.
According to him, the country’s international reserves are now equivalent to 5.6 months of import cover, while “under international standards the minimum acceptable level of international reserves should be able to cover 3 months of projected imports.”
At the beginning of last year, Tajikistan’s international reserves reportedly covered 2.6 months of imports.
Last year, an average monthly volume of Tajikistan’s imports amounted to little more than 230 million U.S. dollars. Proceedings from these figures one can suppose that Tajikistan’s gold-and-currency reserves now amount to some 1.29 billion U.S. dollars.
Meanwhile, a report by the World Bank, Tajikistan: Heightened Vulnerabilities, Despite Sustained Growth, notes that international reserves held by the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT) rose sharply in the first nine months of 2017 to 5.6 months of import cover, but this was largely the result of one-off effects and not indicative of a sustained improvement in economic fundamentals. The surge in reserves came primarily at the cost of debt accumulation, reflecting a US$500 million Eurobond issuance in September.
According to the report, reserves were also supplemented by the acquisition of monetary gold through domestic currency issuances and foreign exchange purchases facilitated by administrative measures. In the medium-term, reserve levels are reportedly expected to gradually moderate as imports recover and construction of the Roghun hydroelectric power plant (HPP) accelerates.
