DUSHANBE, October 19 2010, Asia-Plus  -- The head of the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT), Sharif Rahimzoda, is concerned about increasing consumer prices in the country.

“We must take urgent measures to curb further increase in inflation rate,” Rahimzoda said on October 19 at an enlarged government session, presided over by Prime Minister Oqil Oqilov.

Central bank head noted that the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth for September stood at only 0.1 percent, while inflation for September stood at 1.9 percent and a 3.2 percent rise in prices of products of food industry was reported last month.

“Compared to January-September 2009, remittances to Tajik banks over the first nine months of this year have increased by 27.7 percent,” noted Rahimzoda, “However, we are still far from the pre-crisis level.  Compared to 2008, remittances to local banks last year decreased by 31 percent; in other words, 2.674 billion U.S. dollars were remitted to banks in Tajikistan in 2008, while only 1.834 billion U.S. dollars were remitted to local banks in 2009.”