From the Tajik rouble to the somoni

Tajikistan's economy was devastated by a civil war from 1992 to 1997, in which output fell by about half and inflation reached several thousand percent, with the Tajik rouble, introduced in 1995, losing value rapidly. The National Bank of Tajikistan replaced it with the somoni in October 2000, at 1,000 roubles to one somoni, and inflation fell to low double digits and then single digits as peace and a growing flow of remittances from workers in Russia stabilised the economy. Remittances became equal to around a third or more of GDP, which makes the somoni and household incomes sensitive to the Russian economy; when the rouble fell in 2014 and 2015 the somoni lost about a quarter of its value against the dollar. The civil war and the dependence on remittances together explain the main features of Tajikistan's growth and exchange-rate charts.