Turkmenistan will reopen its commercial foreign currency exchange kiosks next week in a bid to eliminate black market money trading, the nation's president ordered this week. But the official rate of the manat, the national currency of the ex-Soviet state, will remain three times lower than what it brings on the market.
The Central Asian state is emerging from two decades of isolation under the rule of oddball-authoritarian leader Saparmurad Niyazov, who closed the commercial exchanges in 1998. Niyazov died last year.
Until now, only a handful of companies picked by the government could buy US dollars from the central bank, where the rate was fixed at 5,200 to the dollar.
Ordinary Turkmen turned instead to the black market, where a dollar could fetch 23,600 manat.
The new President Gurbangeldy Berdymukhamedov, who has pledged to liberalise the economy, issued a decree on Thursday allowing free currency trading. He also ordered the establishment of an interbank currency exchange.
But the difference between the official and the market rates will remain high. Berdymukhamedov ordered the official rate lowered to 6,250 Manat per dollar while the so called commercial rate at which dealing is allowed will be 20,000 Manat.