Baku, Azerbaijan, May 14
By Anvar Mammadov - Trend:
Despite the decrease in the exchange rate of Azerbaijani manat, the inflation in the country remained at the acceptable level, said the Head of the Monetary Policy Department of Azerbaijani Central Bank Azer Alasgarov.
Alasgarov made the remarks during the conference "G20: Priorities of Turkey's chairmanship and the new opportunities for economic cooperation of Azerbaijan" May 14.
With the decision of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan on Feb.21, 2015 the official exchange rate of the US dollar was set at 1.05 manats which means devaluation of manat by almost 34 percent.
Alasgarov said that the exchange rate policy of the Central Bank allowed to neutralize the strengthening of the exchange rate of manat that has been observed in recent years.
Deflation in Azerbaijan stood at 0.2 percent in April 2015 compared to March, according to the data from the country's State Statistical Committee.
Prices for food products increased by 0.5 percent in April, while the prices for non-food products dropped by 0.5 percent, tariffs and financial services to the population - by 0.9 percent.
The department head of CBA also touched upon the affect of the decrease in the volume of world trade on the level of Azerbaijan's foreign trade operations.
Alasgarov said that the country's trade turnover decreased by 18.6 percent, export - by 37.1 percent and import - by 37.7 percent in Q1 of 2015, compared to the same period of 2014.
"This decrease is mainly related to the situation in the oil market," he said. "Aside from the foreign trade turnover, the volume of money transfers to the country has also dropped."
Alasgarov added that the volume of money transfers to Azerbaijan has decreased by 36 percent.
Meanwhile, demand for the foreign currency has increased due to the decrease of the exchange rate of Azerbaijani manat. "The volume of cash currency sales to the population has increased by 2.1 times."
Edited by SI
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