BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 31. Twenty-three out of 34 foreign exchange auctions scheduled since April 1 have not taken place due to a lack of demand for foreign currency, Chairman of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) Taleh Kazimov said.
Kazimov made the remarks at a press conference on the parameters of the interest rate corridor, Trend's correspondent reports from the event.
He said the cancellation of the auctions indicates that there was no demand for foreign currency at those sessions.
"We offered $70 million for sale at an auction, but there were no buyers. This situation has been observed for the first time since 2016-2017. Moreover, no foreign exchange auction was held at all in May," Kazimov said.
The CBA chairman said one of the main reasons behind this trend is the interbank foreign exchange trading platform launched in 2022.
"We created an interbank foreign exchange platform on the Bloomberg platform in 2022. 2024 was probably the year when the highest trading volume was recorded on this platform. Banks are now meeting their foreign currency needs among themselves. When some banks have demand, other banks with sufficient foreign currency reserves conduct transactions with them. Therefore, there is no longer a need for the Central Bank's foreign exchange auctions. This is a very important point," Kazimov added.
