Azerbaijan, Baku /corr. Trend I.Khalilova / According to data by the International Bank of Azerbaijan (NBA), the growth rate of consumer prices as a result of 2007 was 16.7% compared to 8.3% last year, a source stated at the NBA. In December inflation rose by 0.3%.
Price increases last year commenced from January (inflation made up 17%) due to an increase in tariffs for communal services, transport and energy resources.
In order to maintain inflation at 12-13%, the NBA intends to, in cooperation with the government, strengthen anti-inflation measures. As previous years, the NBA intends to carry out repeat sterilization operations using short-term bank notes in order to maintain the money mass at an optimal level. In 2007 the amount of notes rose by 2.3%.
Increasing the amount of T-bills issued by Azerbaijan's Ministry of Finance will also positively affect the efficiency of sterilization operations. Last year the amount of T-bills rose by 1.8%.
Moreover, measures will continue to liberalize the regime of the country's access to abroad. This will maintain the base inflation at the same level.
Furthermore, the key directions of anti-inflation policy envisage optimizing the non-oil deficit of the consolidated budget, strengthening budget-finance disciplines in the energy sector, especially disciplines for payments in the communal sector.