BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 29. The Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) continues to use its existing monetary policy instruments to boost activity in the interbank market and keep short-term interest rates within the targeted range, and no additional measures are currently planned in this regard, Governor of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) Taleh Kazimov said, Trend's correspondent reports from the event.
He made the remarks at a press conference on Thursday following a meeting on the parameters of the interest rate corridor.
According to him, the Central Bank’s main monetary policy target is not the money supply but the AZIR interest rate formed in the interbank money market.
“Our main benchmark is AZIR, and our goal is to keep it within our interest rate corridor,” Kazimov said.
The CBA governor noted that the lower bound of the interest rate corridor had also been reduced as part of previous monetary policy decisions. The move was intended to increase activity in the interbank market, taking into account the banking sector’s existing liquidity.
“We took this step not to reduce the Central Bank’s participation in the interbank market, but to encourage banks to participate more actively in the market, taking liquidity conditions into account,” he emphasized.
According to Kazimov, activity in the interbank market has increased since September 23. Therefore, no additional measures are currently needed.
“We have the relevant instruments and use them to maintain liquidity at a level that keeps AZIR within our target range,” the CBA governor said.
Addressing food inflation, Kazimov noted that the factors driving price increases in this segment are global in nature. As a result, the scope for direct monetary policy measures to curb food inflation is limited.
The CBA governor added that its analysis also examines price trends across individual product groups.
