Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 15
Trend:
The real effective exchange rate of Azerbaijani manat dropped by 17.2 percent in the first half of 2016, according to the monetary policy report of the country’s central bank.
The decrease of the real effective exchange rate of manat was impacted by lowering of nominal effective exchange rate by 20.3 percent, according to the report. The downward trend in real and nominal effective exchange rate is a factor supporting import substitution and export stimulation.
In the first half of 2016, both strengthening and cheapening were observed in the dynamics of the manat rate, the report said.
“If in early 2016, the dollar exchange rate to manat was 1.5610 AZN, while it reached a record figure of 1.6456 AZN on March 11, it reached the minimum level of 1.49 AZN on May 25,” the report said. “But then, cheapening of the manat was observed again before the end of the half of 2016.”
At the end of the first half of 2016, the manat strengthened against the dollar by 1.3 percent compared to the beginning of the year, and dropped by 0.3 percent against the euro.