Ms. Bermet Talant, a journalist from Kyrgyzstan who is currently based in Sydney, says that in a live discussion, hosted by Radio Liberty on June 16, she spoke with Mouslim Buriyev, an independent researcher from Dushanbe, about how inflation has affected him and what he had to give up or take up to cut his expenses.
"Prices for particular products have skyrocketed. For example, wheat flour has gone up by 30 percent. At the beginning of this year, we would buy a 50-kilogram sack — and we usually buy flour in such amounts to save some money — for US$28. Now it costs US$35 in Dushanbe. An average income in Tajikistan is around US$150 so it's quite a substantial sum," Buriyev said.
According to him, prices for lunches in a small restaurant, to which he used to go for lunch, increased by about 25 percent and some items were removed from the menu.
The price of food delivery reportedly also doubled since the so-called “special military operation” was launched by Russia in Ukraine on February 24.
Buriyev says he now sometimes brings food to work from home and eats at his working place.
“And I started using taxis less often because the prices of petrol increased and so did the cost of taxi service. I use public transport instead. I take two buses to get to work. It takes more time but it's cheaper," he said.
Ms. Talant notes that for several months now, there have been reports of shortages and increased prices of food staples such as flour, rice, cooking oil, sugar, and in some parts, carrots and onions in the Central Asian region. And it's not only food that is getting expensive. So are fuel, electricity, gas, and everything else.
This inflation, of course, hits the most vulnerable in what are already lower-middle-income, remittance- and import-dependent economies.
