Azerbaijan, Baku, 10 Dec / Trend corr. I.Khalilova/ "The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is studying a situation in connection with influence of the world financial crisis on Azerbaijan's economy," Koba Gvenetadze, the head of the IMF's Baku Office, said at a general meeting of the Association of Banks of Azerbaijan.
"Azerbaijan is well prepared to the crisis. As banking sector of Azerbaijan has slightly integrated into the world economy, world processes have affected the sector," Gvenetadze said.
The Azerbaijani Government has created considerable reserves in the period of high oil production and at present this fact enables to prevent influence of the crisis on economy of the country. Azerbaijan's foreign debts are much lower than monetary reserves. Thus, foreign debts of Azerbaijan make up $8bln, while strategic monetary reserves are more than $18bln.
"At present the crisis is going on, whilst I think countries should support their financial sector. The Central Banks should support refinancing to solve liquidity problem in banking sector. They should pay attention to structure of loan portfolio of banks," he said.
The IMF has created a new mechanism of short-term support to liquidity, in accordance which the Fund can issue resources to 500% quota for three months. The countries, which got such a support, include Ukraine - $16.4bln (802% of quota of the country) and Hungary - $15.7bln (1,015% of quota). At present negotiations are being held with the Latvian Government.