DUSHANBE, January 23, 2013, Asia-Plus  -- Tajikistan’s gold and currency reserves rose 170.4 million U.S. dollars in a year to December 31, 2012, reaching 972 million U.S. dollars, Abdujabbor Shirinov, the head of the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT), told journalists on January 22.

According to him, the country’s gold reserves now amount to more than eleven tons of gold.  “Our gold reserves include both monetary gold (gold held by governmental authorities as a financial asset – Asia-Plus) and non-monetary gold (non-monetary gold covers exports and imports of all gold not held as reserve assets (monetary gold) by the authorities – Asia-Plus),” said Tajik central bank head.  “We hope that our non-monetary gold will be certified in the near future as well.  It is fully refined gold but our domestic refinery does not have a world certificate but we hope that we will receive this certificate in the near future.”

Shirinov noted that all those reserves were kept both at the National Bank of Tajikistan and banks in Europe (in Switzerland and Germany) as well as the United States.

“In 2012, the country’s central bank purchased 1.1 tons of gold,” Shirinov noted.

As of December 31, 2011, the country’s gold and currency reserves reportedly amounted to 801.6 million U.S. dollars, which was 20.7 percent more than in 2010.