The National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT) has reduced the refinancing rate by 0.25 percentage points - from 9.50% to 9.25% per annum. The corresponding decision was made at a regular meeting of the Committee on Monetary Policy of the NBT, which took place last Friday, April 26. The new rate will come into effect on May 1 of this year, as reported by the financial regulator. It is worth noting that this is the second rate cut of the refinancing rate in the current year. Earlier in February, the rate was reduced from 10.0% to 9.5% per annum.
According to the country's legislation, this rate is the minimum interest rate at which the NBT provides loans to commercial banks in the country to ensure short-term liquidity. Banks use these loans primarily to support their liquidity in the short term, to meet their urgent obligations, including interbank market settlements, servicing loans from international financial institutions, and other purposes. Meanwhile, experts consider the refinancing rate in a market economy as one of the few instruments, the change of which can influence, to some extent, inflation: a reduction in this rate may lead to more money in circulation, and consequently, goods may become more expensive, and vice versa.
According to official statistics, the inflation rate in the republic in 2023 was 3.8%. The lowest inflation rate in all years of the republic's independence was recorded only in 2013 (3.7%). Inflation in the first quarter of this year, according to the data from the Statistical Agency, was 1.6%, which is 0.2 percentage points lower than in the same period last year. In particular, food products have increased in price by 1.5% since the beginning of this year, non-food products by 0.6%, and paid services to the population by 3.2%.
