It doesn’t suggest confidence in a currency when a prominent company refuses to accept it. That’s especially true when the company is owned by the same folks printing the money.
Uzbekistan Airways, the Central Asian country’s state-run flag carrier, reportedly plans to limit the number of tickets it sells in exchange for Uzbekistan’s national currency, the sum.
The airline will adopt quotas to limit its intake of the hapless Uzbek sum from July 1, report Uzmetronom.com and Fergana News. Under the new rules, only World War Two veterans, some disabled, some business travelers, and those attending the funerals of immediate relatives may continue to purchase tickets for sums, Uzmetronom – a site believed to be used to distribute leaks from Uzbekistan's security services – reported June 7.
"All other citizens will have to buy tickets in US dollars,” Uzmetronom said. Cash only, it added.
Moscow-based Fergana News notes that the airline stopped accepting sums for trips originating outside of Uzbekistan in August 2011.
Anyone holding a sack full of sums won’t be surprised. Authorities have long failed to eliminate the black market for the currency. Dollars are currently exchanging hands at about 2,750 sums each, while the official exchange rate stands at 2,085 sums to the dollar. Even at official rates, though, it is difficult to get any bank to part with its dollars.
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