On August 22, the national currency strengthened during trading on the currency exchange up to 9371 soums per $1, follows from the exchange data.

After the banks were allowed to sell foreign currency in cash, and the Central Bank released the soum into “free float”, the soum strengthened for the second day in a row. The last time this happened in early May, when the soum was traded at 8448 for $1.

At the same time, trading volumes fell sharply – if as of August 21 there were more than 150 million, then on August 22 – already 66.2 million.

On August 20, the Central Bank set a floating exchange rate, which will continue to fluctuate depending on the foreign exchange market.

“The Central Bank decided to cancel the maximum 0.5% deviation in the formation of the soum rate. Now the rate will be formed by buyers and sellers. This is an objective economic need,” the CB head Mamarizo Nurmuratov explained.

Later, the Central Bank specified that they would continue to publish exchange rates once a week. The rate is formed on the basis of currency exchange data.

Earlier, it was reported that banks opened the sale of foreign currency in cash, and several of them lowered the exchange rate by 10-15 soums. The CB said that on the first day, banks sold almost $10 million in cash.