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Russia-Tajikistan trade relations strengthen despite Western forecasts — ambassador

According to Semyon Grigoriev, "to some extent, the sanctions even contributed to the development of our trade"

DUSHANBE, December 22. /TASS/. The trade turnover between Russia and Tajikistan in January-November increased by 34% year-on-year, which disproved the forecasts of Western experts about the impact of anti-Russian sanctions on the Tajik economy, according to Russian Ambassador to Tajikistan Semyon Grigoriev.

"The Russian-Tajik trade turnover during the first eleven months of 2022 was around $1.521 bln, representing a 34.4% increase over the same period previous year. That means, the growth rate is quite high. Furthermore, it was delivered despite all pessimistic forecasts from Western experts about the detrimental impact of anti-Russian sanctions on the economy of Tajikistan," Grigoriev said in an interview with Asia-Plus, published on Thursday.

According to Grigoriev, "to some extent, the sanctions even contributed to the development of our trade. This March, Russia and Tajikistan agreed to switch trade relations from the US dollar to the Russian ruble. This measure simplified imports from Russia, now there is no need to convert incoming money transfers in Russian currency into dollars in order to purchase goods and products in our country."

The Russian ambassador stressed that at least 70% of the contracts of Tajik suppliers of goods and products from Russia have already switched to the ruble.

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