Azerbaijan, Baku, May 22 / Trend , I.Khalilova/
According to the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA), it will be possible to maintain strategic money reserves at the level of the early 2009 at oil price $50 dollars per barrel, and their level will be higher at a price $60, the CBA Acting Director General Khagani Abdullayev said.
"In the worst scenario ($ 50 per barrel oil), the strategic reserves will remain the same with early 2009 ($18.2 billion), although there may be some deviation," Abdullayev said.
Abdullayev said in May the CBA bought the currency from the market and the volume was about $30-40 million, while intervention of dollar was $1 billion in early 2009, but this amount is gradually dropping.
"We forecast that we will refund a significant portion of the sold currency by late 2009, because the country's balance of payments has a large surplus, and if the oil price will be $60, the projected level of surplus may be even higher," Abdullayev said.
Abdullayev said the Central Bank intends to continue buying dollar currencies from the market because "our priority is to ensure financial stability."
Dollarization of the economy was connected with activating the foreign exchange market and the CBA's currency was sold precisely for that reason. At present, the market has stabilized and the intervention defended the exchange rate of the Azerbaijani national currency, Abdullayev said.
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