According to Baketaev, prudent monetary policy helped maintain stability in the domestic foreign exchange market, while the country’s international reserves reached record levels and the banking sector posted strong double-digit growth.

«The regulator’s main task remained ensuring price stability. Despite external risks and Kyrgyzstan’s dependence on global prices, the balanced policy of the National Bank helped prevent excessive growth in consumer prices,» he said.

The discount rate was raised and maintained in the range of 9-11 percent.

At the end of the year, the annual inflation rate was 9.4 percent.

International reserves grew by 69.1 percent over the year, reaching $8.6 billion.

Fluctuations in the national currency were minimal, with the average exchange rate holding at 87.35 soms per dollar.

To smooth out sharp fluctuations, the National Bank conducted interventions of $853 million.

As the head of the National Bank noted, financial sector statistics indicate growing public and business confidence in the banking system.

Bank assets increased by 48.5 percent, exceeding the historic high of 1.2 trillion soms.

The deposit base grew by 46.4 percent, reaching 866.2 billion soms.

The loan portfolio expanded by 48 percent, reaching 507 billion soms.

The volume of financing based on Islamic principles doubled, reaching 21.1 billion soms.

The authorized capital of commercial banks increased 2.1-fold, reaching 161.5 billion soms.

The country has seen a significant reduction in dependence on foreign currency. The level of loan dollarization fell from 21.1 percent to 18.3 percent.

Aziz Baketaev also spoke about digital solutions:

114,100 unified QR codes were installed at retail and service outlets, as well as in government agencies. At least 578.9 million payments were processed using QR codes;

the total number of payment cards in the republic reached 9.19 million, an increase of 7.9 percent over the year.