In January-April this year, the volume of foreign currency remittances to the country amounted to $1.3 billion, it decreased by $161 million or by 11% compared to the same period last year, the Central Bank said in its statement. 

In addition, a total of $250 million was received from international remittances in April this year, it decreased by 15% compared to March. At the same time, in the last ten days of the month, the average daily volume of international remittances increased by 1.7 times compared to the first and second ten days of the month (from $6.7 million to $11.5 million).

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

During the first 4 months of 2020, the demand of legal entities for foreign currency increased by 1.1 times compared to the same period last year and amounted to 4.2 billion soums (in January-April 2019 – $3.9 billion).

During this period, businesses purchased foreign currency in the amount of 1.063 million from the foreign exchange market (in January-April 2019 – $939 million), the volume of transactions on the currency exchange amounted to $3.1 billion (in the first 4 months of 2019 – $2.8 billion).

The main share (63%) in the foreign exchange market for the purchase of foreign currency is the import of equipment for production, goods and raw materials, 22% – imports of consumer goods and medicines, 12% – repayment of foreign loans, 1% – repatriation of foreign investors and the remaining 2% – purchased for other purposes.

During the reporting period, the amount of foreign currency sold by individuals through currency exchange offices amounted to $1.5 billion, it increased by 1.7 times compared to the same period last year (the first four months of 2019 – $884 million). During this period, individuals purchased $1.166 million, this figure is higher by 3.4 times than in the same period last year ($346 million).

At the same time, in the last ten days of April this year, the average daily volume of foreign currency sold by banks to individuals increased by 2.5 times compared to the average daily volume in the first and second ten days and amounted to $9.6 million.