DUSHANBE, April 14, 2009, Asia-Plus -- Signs of impact of the global financial crisis on Tajikistan’s economy have become more tangible in the first quarter of this year, Finance Minister Safarali Najmiddinov remarked at a news conference in Dushanbe today.

According to him, the Tajik national currency – the somoni – has devaluated some 11 percent against the dollar over the report period.

Compared to the same period of last year the country’s external trade turnover over the first three months of this year has decreased by 22.4 percent and the global financial crisis resulted labor migrants’ remittances decreasing by 25 percent, the minister said.  Inflation for January-March stood at 1.2 percent.

Najmiddinov noted that the planned receipts to the budget had reached 84.7 percent of the target for the report period and implementation of the expenditure part of the budget had reached 80 percent of the target for this period.

The minister attributed all this to decrease in prices of exports and reduction in the export volumes as well as reduction in import of goods and services.

Slowdown in economic growth in other CIS states, including Russia and Kazakhstan, has also affected Tajikistan’s economy, Najmiddinov said.

He noted that the country’s external debt had reached 1.37billion US dollars, which is 24 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).  The minister added that 53 million US dollars are planned to be allocated from the budget this year for servicing and repaying the external debt.