Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 26
By Anvar Mammadov - Trend:
The Azerbaijani manat is not expected to be devalued until the end of 2015, Oqtay Hagverdiyev, Doctor of Economics, former head of the pricing, economic and fiscal policy department of the Azerbaijani Cabinet of Ministers, told Trend August 26.
He said that the situation on the financial markets of Russia and Kazakhstan has no significant impact on Azerbaijan.
"The exchange rate of manat, as opposed to the currencies of neighboring countries, is regulated by the Central Bank of Azerbaijan," he said. Therefore, the situation on the financial markets of neighboring countries will not greatly affect it. The situation in Russia and Kazakhstan is that these countries passed to a freely floating exchange rate. This sudden change is stipulated by the situation on the foreign exchange markets."
He said the drop in Georgian lari, which has since early this year fallen against the US dollar by almost 27 percent, to 2.3640/$1, will have no impact on Azerbaijan either, as the two countries' trade turnover is not so big.
Hagverdiyev said the stir among population, which has arisen in the last two or three days, is causeless.
"The central bank has all the resources to maintain the manat," said the expert. "It is important for the population not to believe in rumors and artificial stir."
Azerbaijani manat's devaluation occurred February 21, 2015 by almost 34 percent to 1.05 manat per dollar.
Despite that a few days ago, the selling rate of the US dollar at some exchange offices of banks was raised to 1.08 manats to $1, based on an instruction from the central bank, the country's banks had to reduce it to 1.055.
The CBA keeps this issue the focus and exceeding of the set level is fraught with the closing of currency exchange offices.
In this regard, the Central Bank carries out regular monitoring and a hotline has been set up.
In order to remove the hype, which is caused by devaluation processes in neighboring countries and eliminate the cash deficit in foreign currency, the Central Bank meets the needs of banks in the US dollars in the required quantities. At the same time, the banks avoid the exchange of large sums, which again is due to their reluctance to face a shortage of foreign currency.
Edited by CN
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