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Tajikistan

Tajikistan Remote Monitoring Update, February 2015

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Recent precipitation will increase the availability of water for second crops

KEY MESSAGES

  • Recent precipitation, both snow and rain, significantly increased water availability in major water basins that would provide sufficient irrigation water for the second crops, such as cotton. At the same time, this precipitation has increased the risk of avalanches and flooding in the foothills.

  • Wheat flour prices increased further in January to a national average price of 29 percent above the five-year average. The increase in wheat flour prices has been driven by various factors, including above-average prices of imports from Kazakhstan, high domestic fuel and transportation costs, depreciation of national currency against the U.S. dollar, and seasonal demand for winter stocks.

  • Although the Russian ruble (RUB) began to recover slightly against the Tajikistani somoni (TJS) in February, the ruble has depreciated by 37 percent against the somoni since late August, reducing the purchasing power of remittances from Tajikistani labor migrants working in Russia.