BAKU, Azerbaijan. Nov. 23
By Zeyni Jafarov - Trend:
The Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) issued a review of its monetary policy last week, Trend reports.
According to the review, Azerbaijani banks carried out transactions for the sale and purchase of cash foreign currency in the amount of $4.2 billion over the past nine months of 2020, which is 2.6 percent less than in the same period of last year.
In the reporting period, most of the transactions on foreign currency’s purchase and sale were conducted with the dollar in the amount of $3.7 billion (88.1 percent).
From January through September 2020, the non-cash foreign exchange market of Azerbaijan made up $18.7 billion, showing a year-on-year decline of 4.1 percent. Of this amount, 86.7 percent of transactions were carried out in US dollars, and the remaining 13.3 percent in other currencies.
The daily rate of the manat against the US dollar for the past nine months of 2020 formed at the level of 1.7 AZN/ USD. The foreign currency purchase rates set by the banks were close to the official rate.
Furthermore, last week S&P Global Ratings Agency has predicted the execution of the balance of the expanded Azerbaijani government’s budget with a 6.5-percent GDP deficit in 2020 due to a slight weakening in the local economy amid pressures from the COVID-19 pandemic and collapse of oil prices. Nevertheless, the agency expects the recovery of the economy to 1.5-percent GDP growth in 2021 against a significant surplus (11 percent) in GDP.
Last week, Visa company and Azericard LLC processing center have announced a strategic partnership to develop innovative digital payment solutions in Azerbaijan. Within the framework of the partnership, Vısa and Azericard will work on the development of digital emissions and the creation of innovative digital payment solutions for a wide audience of users in Azerbaijan.
The volume of agricultural production in Azerbaijan in actual prices amounted to 7.48 billion manat ($4.4 billion) from January through October 2020, which is 1.6 percent more than in the same period of last year.
According to the State Statistical Committee of Azerbaijan, the volume of cargo transshipment through the local seaports over the past 10 months topped 7.2 million tons, up by 6.4 percent compared to the same period of 2019.
Also, last week there were recorded a decline in the manat rate against the currencies of the main partner countries, as well as the lowering of gold prices in Azerbaijan.
Trend Economic Department
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