Baku, Azerbaijan, May 21
By Emil Ismayilov - Trend:
As of the first quarter of 2014, some 51.2 percent of the total volume of the investment portfolio of the Azerbaijani State Oil Fund (SOFAZ) is in U.S. dollars ($18.6 billion), SOFAZ said on May 20.
As of January-March, the total sum of SOFAZ's investment portfolio amounted to $36.344 billion or 99.3 percent of total volume of assets, according to the report.
Around 36.9 percent of the investment portfolio is concentrated in euros (9.75 billion euros), 5 percent in British pounds sterling (about 1.08 billion pounds sterling), 1.2 percent in Turkish Lira, 0.5 percent in Australian Dollars and 1.2 percent in Russian rubles, 0.6 percent in Korean won. The rest of the portfolio at 3.5 percent ($1.26 million) is concentrated in gold.
As of April 1, 2014, SOFAZ assets increased by 2.07 percent compared to early 2014 ($35.877.5 billion) and reached $36.618.4 billion.
SOFAZ began buying gold in the first quarter of 2012. As of April 1, 2014, the amount of purchased gold was 30.175 tons (970,146 troy ounces).
SOFAZ was established in 1999 with assets of $271 million.
Based on SOFAZ's regulations, its funds may be used for the construction and reconstruction of strategically important infrastructure facilities, as well as solving important national problems.
The main goals of the State Oil Fund include: accumulation of resources and placement of the fund's assets abroad in order to minimize the negative affect on the economy, the prevention of 'Dutch disease' to some extent, promotion of resource accumulation for future generations and support of current social and economic processes in Azerbaijan.
The official exchange rate is 0.7844 AZN/USD on May 21.
edited by CN