An early exit from the rouble zone

Kyrgyzstan was the first of the former Soviet Central Asian republics to leave the rouble zone, introducing its own currency, the som, in May 1993. The National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic floated the som and quickly cut inflation, and the stability of the currency allowed Kyrgyzstan to join the WTO in 1998, earlier than most of its neighbours. The economy remains small, dependent on remittances from Kyrgyz workers in Russia, which have been around a quarter or more of GDP, and on gold exports, so the som tends to follow the Russian rouble. When oil prices fell and the rouble depreciated sharply in 2014 and 2015, the som fell with it, and the National Bank's interventions and the country's accession to the Eurasian Economic Union in 2015 shaped the adjustment.