Azerbaijan, Baku, July 23 /Trend E.Ismayilov/
In July, the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ), placed 800 million Turkish liras on short-term deposits of Turkish banks, executive director of the Fund Shahmar Movsumov said at a press conference on the results of activity in the first six months of this year.
"In the near future, the fund plans to further increase the amount of savings in the Turkish currency in the total investment portfolio," Movsumov said.
He noted that fund purchased securities worth 200 million Australian dollars from Australia in July in order to diversify foreign exchange reserves.
"It is also planned to open accounts in Russia. It is planned that the account will be opened in the near future" Movsumov said.
Currency structure of the investment portfolio of the Oil Fund is set as follows: 50 percent of the assets can be placed in U.S. dollars, 40 percent - in euros and five per cent - in British Pounds Sterling. The remaining five percent of the total cost of the investment fund's portfolio may be in the currencies of the "Big Seven" countries with long-term ratings not lower than "A" (Standard and Poor's, Fitch Ratings) and "A2" (Moody `s), Russia and Turkey.
SOFAZ assets increased by 9.6 percent as of July 1, 2012 compared to the beginning of this year (29.8 billion), amounted to $32,666 million.
State Oil Fund was established in 1999 and at that time, its assets amounted to $271 million.