Tajikistan - Domestic trade

Although trade is still dominated by the state sector, the government has been working on programs to transfer of much of the retail and wholesale trade sector into private ownership. As of 1999, the government reported that most small enterprises were in private hands. Privatization of medium and large-sized businesses, land reform, and banking reforms are still in the works. Price liberalization lifted controls on most consumer and wholesale trade, although subsidies and lowered ceilings have been applied to staple goods like flour, sugar, oil, bread, meat, and children's footwear. Most large towns have large marketplaces, or bazaars, where individual merchants sell a variety of consumer goods, many of which are imported. Trade on the black market has expanded significantly in the growing economic disarray since independence.