Azerbaijan, Baku, Nov. 11 / Trend I. Khalilova /
The Azerbaijani Central Bank's major task is to support the banking sector in Azerbaijan, Chairman Elman Rustamov said while discussing the 2010 draft budget in parliament.
"It will be impossible to achieve the development of the real sector of the economy without fully recoverying the financial sector," he said. "It will also remove the consequences of the global economic crisis. Participants in the last G20 meeting came to this conclusion."
Rustamov said actions have also been envisaged in the 2010 state budget to tackle the crisis by allocating resources to finance social mortgages.
"The Central Bank also plans to provide the banking sector with additional liquidity," Rustamov said.
He added that the bank will reduce the interest rate for the real economy to ensure cheap loans via a stable exchange rate policy and low inflation.
Rustamov also noted that deposit insurance limits in banks have increased five times to 30,000 manat. This allowed 80 percent of the population's deposits to be ensured, he said, which played a significant role in increasing the public's confidence in the banking sector.
As a result of measures taken over nine months, banking sector assets increased to five percent, loan investments in the real economy to eight percent and deposits by the population to 11 percent.
Rustamov said Azerbaijan will easily overcome the global crisis.
"Economic growth and the improvement of the population's social condition will only confirm Azerbaijan's economic power," the Central Bank head said.
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