ASHGHABAT (Chronicles of Turkmenistan) — A maximum of $3.000 can now be taken out of Turkmenistan and amounts exceeding $500 need to be indicated in the customs declaration. The dollar exchange rate on the black market is over three times higher than the official rate;

The previous maximum amount allowed out of the country equalled $10.000. As before, an amount up to $10.000 can be imported into the country.

Restrictions to export foreign currency have allegedly been imposed by shotage due to money sent to students abroad.

Moreover, since the start of the year residents of Turkmenistan have been unable to withdraw cash overseas. The dollar exchange rate on the black market has soared more than 3 folds. There are no official announcements on the restrictions but passengers exiting the country are required to inform customs officers of the amounts of cash they are carrying.

Turkmenistan is still experiencing problems with cash withdrawals from bank cards overseas. Queues of those who need to make money transfers via Western Union have formed at the banks.

Starting from mid December when new official restrictions had been imposed, a maximum of $500 could be transferred overseas. However, bank office staff makes transfers of no more than $200 at a time. In order to send the permitted amount, a person needs to wait in line for a customer identification number and then queue for the cash department three times a month.

People stand in line to get a customer identification number, indicating the date when a person can come to the bank office and make a transfer. For instance, in one of Dashoguz offices the waiting list is until 14 February. Customer identification numbers are free of charge but they are sold “under the counter”: they used to cost 50 manats per transaction but now the price has increased to 100.