Central Bank: Banks purchased $2,7 billion from people in 2018 

 The Central Bank of Uzbekistan has published data on the currency market of the country over the past year, Kun.uz correspondent reports. 
  
“The foreign exchange market in 2018 was characterized by an increase in the volume of operations, both from the demand and supply side, growth of participants in foreign exchange transactions and continuation of the transition of economic entities and population from the informal to the official foreign exchange market,” the Central Bank said. 
 
In 2018, the volume of purchases of foreign currency by legal entities amounted to $10,4 billion, an increase of 1,5 times compared with 2017. 
  
At the same time, the number of business entities purchasing foreign currency increased by 2,3 times – from 2,200 in January to 5,100 in December. 
 
 The main sources of foreign currency supply in 2018 were export revenues of business entities and cross-border remittances. 
  
The volume of currency sold to banks increased by 2 times – from $2,1 billion in 2017 to $4,1 billion in 2018. As a result, the share of export proceeds sold to banks increased from 31% to 61%. 
  
Furthermore, individuals sold $2,7 billion to banks, in turn, from these funds, banks sold $969 million to the population, aimed at covering the demand of legal entities – $1,7 billion. 
 
Net foreign exchange reserves of the republic at the end of the year amounted to $26,4 billion. The exchange rate policy reflected the ratio of the current level of supply and demand in the foreign exchange market. In particular, during periods of increase in foreign exchange earnings and relatively weak demand, a strengthening of the exchange rate was observed, and conversely, there was a weakening of it with a faster increase in demand. 
 
In addition, the exchange rate change was characterized by seasonal factors that influenced the demand and supply of foreign currency. 
 
Thus, by the end of 2018, the exchange rate devalued by 2,7% compared with the beginning of the year (from 8120 to 8339 soums/USD), whereas during the year its fluctuation between the minimum and maximum values was 7,3% (7781 soums/USD in August, 8348 soums/USD in December).