National Bank of the Republic of Tajikistan reports first-half 2026 inflation at 4.1%, lowers refinancing rate to 7.0%

The National Bank of the Republic of Tajikistan published its first-half 2026 activity update, showing annual inflation at 4.1% in June, within the lower bound of its 5% target plus or minus 2 percentage points, while six-month inflation reached 2.4%. Against that backdrop, the central bank cut the refinancing rate by 0.5 percentage point to 7.0%, conducted 39 securities auctions totaling TJS 82.5 billion and absorbed excess liquidity through overnight deposit operations averaging TJS 2.0 billion a day. It continued to operate the exchange rate under a managed float without announced bands, and the official U.S. dollar rate rose 0.17% against the somoni over the period. The banking system comprised 69 financial credit institutions and 1,971 outlets as of June 30. Sector assets reached TJS 63.6 billion, liabilities TJS 51.5 billion and capital TJS 12.1 billion, up 21.8%, 22.4% and 19.5% year on year, respectively. Deposits increased 25.7% to TJS 36.9 billion, while lending in the first half rose 23.6% to TJS 16.9 billion, including TJS 12.8 billion in microloans. Capital adequacy stood at 24.3% and liquidity at 81.0%, both above regulatory requirements. Digital payments continued to expand, with 12.4 million bank cards, 19.8 million electronic wallets and 152.0 million cashless transactions worth TJS 38.3 billion in January-June, raising the share of noncash payments for goods and services to 41%. The review also noted that insurance system assets increased 25.2% year on year, while Standard & Poor's affirmed Tajikistan's sovereign rating at B/B and revised the outlook to positive, and Moody's raised the long-term sovereign rating to B2 from B3 with a stable outlook.