Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Sept. 5
By Demir Azizov - Trend:
A number of Uzbek companies, the goods and services of which were denominated in hard currency, switched to tariffication in national currency, while maintaining prices at the level prevailing before devaluation of the Uzbek soum.
Earlier, in line with the presidential decree "On priority measures for liberalization of currency policy," the country's Central Bank set the market rate of the Uzbek national currency at the level of 8,100 soums per US dollar, devaluing it by 48 percent.
Today, GM Uzbekistan, a joint venture producing passenger cars, announced about keeping retail prices for cars at the level prevailing before the devaluation of the soum.
Before, prices were also determined in soums, but varied weekly depending on the US dollar exchange rate, set by the Central Bank.
Starting today, the national airline Uzbekistan Airways also began selling tickets for its flights from Uzbekistan in soums to both residents and non-residents.
Starting from July 2013, the company sold tickets to residents of the country for flights from Uzbekistan to the cities of Russia for foreign currency. Tickets to non-residents were sold only for foreign currency.
Mobile operators and Internet providers of Uzbekistan also made the same decision on the transition to a fixed soum billing.
“This is done in order to prevent a sharp increase in prices and mitigate the consequences of liberalization of monetary policy in the transition period,” the country’s Ministry for Development of Information Technologies and Communication told Trend.
There are no comments on how long the prices will remain fixed at this level.
Starting from today, commercial banks of Uzbekistan will buy foreign currency from the population at the rate set by the Central Bank, “without restriction in the volume and bureaucracy”.
Meanwhile, the sale of foreign currency to individuals will be carried out in the conversion departments of commercial banks, with the transfer of funds to international payment cards to use abroad.
The country’s Central Bank said that the exchange rate of national currency against foreign currencies will be determined on interbank electronic trading of the currency market, solely on the basis of supply and demand.
Interbank trading sessions on purchase and sale of foreign currency on the Uzbek Republican Currency Exchange will be held daily, at which the exchange rate will be determined on the basis of the current supply-demand ratio of foreign currency and published on the currency market website.