Historical Sketch

The Tajik territories came under rule of the Emirate of Bukhara in the 16th century. In 1865-1876, the Uzbek-inhabited territories were annexed to the Russian Empire. They were combined to form the Turkestan General Governorate, but Bukhara and Khiva (Khorezm) retained independence under a protectorate. In the civil war after the 1917 Russian Revolution Soviet Turkestan emerged and joined the USSR in 1922 as Autonomous Soviet Republic of Turkestan, to which Bukhara and Khorezm were added two years later. In 1925, Turkestan was broken up and divided into the Soviet republics of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Four years later, the eastern part of Uzbekistan was split off as Tajikistan. In 1991, Tajikistan withdrew from the USSR and declared independence. Immediately afterwards, a civil war broke out that lasted until 1997.

Monetary History Overview

Due to the civil war after independence in 1991, the Soviet currency remained in circulation longer than anywhere else in the post-Soviet countries. After the demonetization of the Soviet banknotes in Russia in July 1993, the now invalid money started to flow into Tajikistan. As the political and economic situation die not permit the introduction of a Tajik currency, an agreement with the Russian Federation was concluded in September to temporarily introduce the Russian currency in Tajikistan. In January 1994, Russian banknotes became legal tender, and the Soviet and pre-reform Russian notes were exchanged on par demonetized within a week. In May 1995 finally, the Tajik Ruble was created as the new national currency, and the Russian currency was demonetized within a week. In the ongoing civil, the Tajik currency depreciated even against the inflationary Russian Ruble, against stable currencies the annual decay was at rates of 30% and more during the 1990s. In October 2000, after more than 95% of the Ruble's value was gone, a currency reform was carried out. Three zeros were cut, and the Tajik Somoni became the new unit. The strong depreciation went on for a couple of years, until after 2003. a period of relative currency stability set in. In the mid-2010s, the Somoni lost about 50% of its value and continued to depreciate since then.

Tajikistan joined the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on 27.04.1993.

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