Dushanbe, Tajikistan---Ex-Soviet Tajikistan on Friday scrambled to stave off panic over its tumbling currency as shockwaves from Russia's financial crisis continued to reverberate around the region.
The impoverished Central Asian state's national bank announced tough controls on dollar sales in a bid to shore up its battered national currency the somoni.
Tajikistan's economy is heavily dependent on Russia, with almost half of its gross domestic product (GDP) coming from remittances sent mainly from people working in its former Soviet master.
In recent weeks, long queues have spilled out of exchange bureaus in the capital Dushanbe as people lose faith in the national currency which fell 11 percent against the dollar in 2014 and 4.0 percent since the start of this year, according to official exchange rates.
Based on the dollar's unofficial value, the national currency has lost 10 percent this year.
"The National Bank of Tajikistan has established a ceiling for purchases and sales of foreign currency in cash," bank vice-chairman Jamshed Yusufiyon said, warning of "severe" punishment for any banks violating the order.
Russia's economy has been mauled by a double hit of Western sanctions over Ukraine and tumbling oil prices, with the ruble losing around half of its value last year.
Tajikistan's national bank says the amount of money sent back by its migrant workers shrank by 8.3 percent last year due to the ruble's fall.
The International Monetary Fund warned earlier this year that Russia's economic problems had "seriously weakened the outlook for other economies in the region."
Authorities in former Soviet nations from Belarus to the South Caucasus and Central Asia have become increasingly jittery as their Russia-reliant economies have suffered.
AFP
