DUSHANBE, January 27, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- As of January 1, 2009, the gold and foreign currency reserves held by the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT) have amounted to 198.5 million US dollars, the NBT head Sharif Rahimzoda announced at a press conference in Dushanbe on January 27.

We will recall that as of October 1, 2008, the country’s gold and foreign currency reserves had amounted to 179 million US dollars.

In 2008, the central bank purchased 791.2 kilograms of gold for 21.7 million dollars and foreign currency for 220.1 million dollars, Rahimzoda said.

According to him, the country last year paid off its debts to Kazakhstan’s commercial bank, Kazakommertzbank ($152 million), Germany’s Douche Bank (451.2 million), and Kommertzbank AG ($40 million).  In 2008, Tajikistan also repaid a part of its debt to the International Monetary Fund ($29.9 million).