Payments of savings at Saving Bank of Azerbaijani SSR has no major impact on inflation

Azerbaijan, Baku, May 31 /Trend A.Akhundov/

The Azerbaijani Finance Ministry does not expect that the process of issuing of individual lump sum payments to depositors of the former Azerbaijani branch of Saving Bank of the USSR as of January 1, 1992 will have a major impact on inflation in the country, finance minister Samir Sharifov told journalists on Thursday.

The process of getting funds will start in June 2012 and end on December 31, 2013. Issuing of individual lump sum payments to depositors of the Azerbaijani branch of Saving Bank of the USSR covers 2.4 million citizens of Azerbaijan, who are the owners of personal deposit accounts. According to preliminary estimates of the Ministry of Finance about one billion manat will be needed for payment of funds.

"Clearly, the issue of such volume of funds will affect inflation, but we do not expect any significant impact. Traditionally Azerbaijan recorded a low level of inflation during the summer months, and the peak of the process of issuing payments will fall on the summer, which will balance out the situation," the Minister said.

At the same time Sharifov called on citizens to put the funds in a bank account and not to rush to release them in the consumer market.

Kapital Bank is an authorised bank on the issue of lump sum payments which became the legal successor of the Saving Bank of AzSSR.

Official exchange rate on May 31 is 0.7857 AZN/USD