DUSHANBE, January 18, 2016, Asia-Plus – Despite all the desperate measures being taken by authorities in Tajikistan, the national currency has continued depreciating against the dollar.

Tajikistan’s national currency, the somoni, has lost more than 6 percent of its value against the dollar since January 1.

An official exchange rate of the somoni against the dollar set by the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT) reportedly fell from 7.1101:1 on January 1 to 7.44 on January on16.

On December 31, 2015, the official rate was 6.99 somoni to 1.00 dollar.

As far as the cash market is concerned, the somoni has lost 11 percent in its value against the dollar since January 1, 2016 – if the exchange rate of the somoni against the dollar on January 1 was 7.45:1, banks’ websites are now showing 8.42:1.     

As it had been reported earlier, the somoni lost 31.6 percent of its value against the dollar in a year to December 31, 2015 – from 5.46:1 on December 31, 2014, to 6.9902:1 on December 31, 2015.

According to EurasiaNet.org , a $400 daily limit has been placed on how many dollars account-holders can draw on their cards.

In December, the central bank reportedly suspected operations at all money exchanges points, citing speculation, leaving only banks the right to perform the transaction.  Anybody carrying out unauthorized currency exchanges could face stiff penalties, the central bank said.

Remittances from Russia in January-September in 2015 reportedly dropped by 65.1 percent to $1.54 billion compared to the same period the previous year, when the figure stood at $3.16 billion.