As of March 17, the Central Bank has set the official U.S. dollar to soum rate increased by 180.26 soums to reach 11,330.38 soums. In a single day the Uzbek soum made a highest leap since April 16, 2020, when the increase was 427 soums.

At the beginning of the year, the dollar’s value was at 10,819.67 soums - in 2.5 months it has risen by 510.71 soums, or 4.7%. The bulk of the growth, 4.5% has occurred over the past three weeks - since February 24 the day of invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

Note: for the whole of 2021, the soums depreciated by only 3.4%, which was the lowest figure in the previous three years (in 2019 and 2020, the sum fell by 13.9% and 10.1%, respectively).

The Central Bank reported that it was possible to achieve a low level of devaluation due to an increase in remittances to the country by 34% (up to $8.1 billion) and export earnings - also by 34% (up to $11.6 billion). This became a factor supporting the supply of foreign currency in the domestic foreign exchange market, and served to increase it by 1.6 times.

In November, the Accounts Chamber predicted that the average annual dollar exchange rate would be at the level of 11,321 soums. This forecast did not take into account the possibility of a military conflict in the countries – Uzbekistan’s top trade partners.

Against the backdrop of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and subsequent large-scale sanctions by Western countries, the official dollar exchange rate in Russia has increased by 38.6% since February 23, from 80.42 to 111.48 rubles. At its peak on March 11, it reached 120 rubles.

The devaluation of the ruble was followed by the depreciation of the currency of other countries of Central Asia. In Kyrgyzstan, the official dollar exchange rate has fallen by 23.8% since February 23, from 84.8 to 105 soms. In Tajikistan, during this period, the dollar strengthened by 15% - from 11.3 to 13 somoni, and in Kazakhstan - by 18.1%, or from 433.39 to 512.19 tenge.