Baku, Azerbaijan, July 21
By Emil Ismayilov - Trend:
Around 51.7 percent of the investment portfolio of the Azerbaijani State Oil Fund (SOFAZ) is concentrated in U.S. dollars (around $19.4 billion) as of the first half of 2014.
The total volume of SOFAZ's investment portfolio stood at over $37.550 billion, or 99.8 percent of the total volume of its assets, SOFAZ said on July 21.
Some 35.4 percent of SOFAZ's investment portfolio is concentrated in euro (9.74 billion euro), 5.3 percent - in British pounds (1.17 billion pounds), 1.2 percent - in Turkish lira, 0.5 percent - Australian dollars, 1.3 percent - Russian rubles, 1.2 percent - Korean Won, SOFAZ said.
The remaining part of the portfolio (3.4 percent, or about $1.3 million) is concentrated in gold.
SOFAZ started to purchase gold in the first quarter of 2012, and the purchased gold weighs 30.175 tons (970,146 ounces) as of July 1, 2014.
The assets of SOFAZ increased by 4.86 percent as of July 1, 2014, compared to early 2014, and stood at over $37.622 billion.
SOFAZ was established in 1999, and its assets at that time amounted to $271 million.
Based on SOFAZ's regulations, its funds may be used for the construction and reconstruction of strategically important infrastructure facilities, as well as solving important national problems.
The main goals of the State Oil Fund include: accumulation of resources and the placement of the fund's assets abroad in order to minimize the negative affect on the economy, the prevention of "Dutch disease" to some extent, promotion of resource accumulation for future generations and support of current social and economic processes in Azerbaijan.
The official exchange rate on July 21 is 0.7843 AZN/USD.