Central Bank explains why the soum sharply depreciated in April

“This is explained by the growth of devaluation expectations of business entities and the population associated with the depreciation of the currencies of the countries -- main trading partners of Uzbekistan - starting from the second half of March, as well as with the formation of an imbalance of supply and demand in the domestic foreign exchange market,” the Central Bank said.

It is noted that the dynamics of the exchange rate of the national currency in the domestic foreign exchange market was formed taking into account the ratio of the current level of supply and demand, as well as internal and external factors.

As a result, during the first quarter of this year, the national currency depreciated by 0.8% (from 9,501 soums to 9,577 soums per US dollar).

According to the Central Bank, in January-April, the situation in the domestic foreign exchange market was formed in the face of an increase in the demand and supply of foreign currency in all its segments.

The total volume of operations in the domestic foreign exchange market amounted to $5.4 billion, it increased by 1.8 and 1.3 times compared with the corresponding periods of 2018 and 2019, respectively.