Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 20
By Anvar Mammadov - Trend:
Azerbaijani manat is not being fully used as an investment currency, head of the Baku Interbank Currency Exchange (BBVB) Farhad Amirbayov told Trend.
Amirbayov believes the mentioned fact is the reason for the ongoing dollarization of economy in Azerbaijan
The Central Bank changed the rate of the national currency, having set it at 1.05 manats per dollar on February 21 (against 0.7862 manats the day before).
Since that day, the so-called Black Saturday, the rate of manat ranges within this mark [1, 05 manats], becoming slightly more expensive and then cheaper.
Despite this fact [rise of the dollar in one day by almost 34 percent], demand for the dollar in the country remains high.
Amirbayov said the devaluation of the national currency in Azerbaijan has an internal factor besides the external one.
"The matter is that we weren't able to establish such a non-oil economy that would compensate for the falling oil revenues," he said. "I believe, this is the major factor."
Referring to the situation in the global economy, Amirbayov said that the global economic crisis will further continue.
"There are many reasons for that: the accumulation of imbalances in the world economy, huge debt burden, as well as inefficient logistics," said Amirbayov.
---
Follow the author on Twitter: @Anvar_Mammadov