By the end of the last year, Tajikistan’s international reserves had reached 8½ months of import cover, the head of the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT), Hokim Kholiqzoda, told reporters in Dushanbe on February 10.
International reserves are funds central banks exchange with each other on an international level. The reserves can either be in gold or in an internationally-accepted commodity, like the dollar or the euro.
“The country’s gold-and-currency reserves increased to 8½ months of import cover at the end of last year from 5.3 months of import cover at the end of 2019,” Kholiqzoda said.
He did not announce the total value of the international reserves in monetary terms. He just said that a part of gold reserves was sold abroad.
According to the official statistical data, the average monthly volume of imports of Tajikistan last year amounted to US$262 million. Based on this, we can conclude that the size of the NBT's gold and foreign exchange reserves in 2020 amounted to US$2.227 billion.
According to information posted on Take-profit.org, Tajikistan’s gold reserves amounted 17.2 tons by the end of the second quarter of 2020.
Countries hold foreign-exchange reserves partly to protect themselves against external crises. One common rule of thumb is that reserves that can cover three months' worth of imports are adequate.
