The National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT) has called on local lending agencies to take efforts to ensure foreign exchange (forex) market stability.
A working meeting to review issues related to measures to ensure the country’s forex market stability was held on July 3.
According to the NBT press center, the meeting participants included top managers of the NBT Department for International Reserves and Forex Policy and senior representatives of local lending agencies.
Representatives of lending agencies reportedly stated that they have been taking efforts to ensure the country's forex market stability, meeting customers’ requirements in foreign currency.
Speaking at the meeting, the head of the NBT Department for International Reserves and Forex Policy, Olim Qayumov, in particular, noted that improvement of improvement of welfare of the population and development of the real sector of the country’s economy directly depended of activity of the domestic forex market.
The NBT executive stressed that a certain stability of the national currency, the somoni, against the foreign currencies had been achieved due to monetary policy carried out by Tajik central bank.
According to him, the National Bank currently adheres to the forex policy based on “the floating regulated exchange rate without determination of limits of change in exchange rate.”
Representatives of Tajik central bank say that the current situation in the country’s forex market is more stable compared to the previous years.
Tajikistan has mainly resorted to “administrative resources” to keep the currency on an even keel.
In December 2015, the National Bank ordered the closure of all unauthorized currency exchange points in the city. After that, only banks were able to perform foreign exchange operations. Anybody found violating this new arrangement could face jail terms of up to nine years. Also, banks are forbidden by law from selling somoni at more than 1.5 percent the rate established by the National Bank.
Even the Finance Ministry has long freely admitted the somoni is set for gradual devaluation, which explains why people are so eager to get rid of their stocks. According to the ministry’s forecasts, the somoni is projected to slide to 10.4 somoni in 2018 and to 11.2 somoni in 2019
