Azerbaijan, Baku, Aug. 10 / Trend A.Akhundov /
To prevent the significant strengthening of manat, and thus neutralize the negative impact on the competitiveness of non-oil sector during the first half the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) conducted sterilization of foreign currency in the amount of $639.4 million, a CBA report on monetary policy the following the first half-year said.
"In the first half-year the CBA continued exchange rate policy in the framework of bilateral targeting of dollar / manat exchange rate. In terms of the large surplus in the country's balance of payments supply in the currency market of the country increased," the report says.
In the first half-year of 2012 exchange rate of manat compared to the dollar has consolidated by 0.1 percent. The stability of the national currency during the past six months has had a positive impact on the stability of macroeconomic and financial sectors.
During the reporting period manat compared to the currencies of the euro zone and Iran rose both nominally and really. Compared to the currencies of Turkey, Georgia and Belarus manat fell both nominally and really, compared to the currencies of U.S., UK, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Japan, Israel, China and South Korea rose nominally, but fell really.
In January-June, the nominal effective exchange rate (NEC) of manat in non-oil sector in the total trade turnover rose by 2.7 percent. Inflation in the partner countries contributed to the lowering of the real effective exchange rate (RER) by 4.3 percentage points. REC on non-oil sector fell by 1.6 percent.
"Thus, during the reporting period the Central Bank has ensured stability of bilateral exchange rate of manat and the dollar. Multilateral exchange rate of manat has fallen, which is a positive factor in terms of improving the competitiveness of non-oil sector," the report says.