BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 18. The Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) decided to keep the refinancing rate unchanged at the level of 7.25 percent, Trend reports.
According to the CBA, the upper and lower limits of the interest rate corridor also remained unchanged at 8.25 percent and 6.25 percent, respectively.
"The decision to maintain the interest rate was made considering the actual and projected inflation levels, which align with the target range of (4±2%), as well as the dynamics of internal and external inflation factors.
Despite the fact that annual inflation has increased since the last meeting, it is still within the target range (4±2%). 12-month inflation was 3.5 percent in August 2024, food inflation - 3 percent, non-food inflation - 1.8 percent, services - 5.6 percent. Annual core inflation was 2.4 percent.
The external inflation background is generally stable. The growth of the nominal effective exchange rate of the manat over this period (2.8 percent in 8 months of 2024) made an additional contribution to the reduction of import inflation.
The current account of the balance of payments had a surplus of $2.6 billion, or 7.5 percent of GDP, in the first 6 months of 2024. The foreign trade balance, the main component of the current account, amounted to $5.5 billion in the first 8 months of 2024. The positive balance was recorded in US dollars. The country's strategic foreign exchange reserves increased by 6.1 percent in 8 months to $72.6 billion," the CBA stated.
Will be updated