Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 3
By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:
The decrease in oil prices in world markets should not have a direct impact on Azerbaijan's banking sector, the Deputy Chairman of Azerbaijani Central Bank (CBA) Khagani Abdullayev told Trend Nov. 3.
"One can't say that the drop in oil prices has no effect on our banking sector. There is certainly some influence. But there is no direct impact," he said.
Abdullayev went on to add that Azerbaijan created a very high financial buffer.
"The strategic currency reserves totaling 74 percent of GDP have been concentrated in the country," he noted. "We also expect that the balance of payments surplus will remain quite high this year. We estimate that it will exceed $12 billion."
Abdullayev said it is expected that in the future, the balance of payments surplus will exceed 10 percent.
According to the balance of payments, made public by the CBA, the current account surplus in the first half of 2014 stood at $6.4 billion, decreasing by 4.5 percent compared to the same period of last year.
The current account surplus of oil and gas sector of Azerbaijan totaled $10.3 billion in the mentioned period.
The overall balance of payments surplus of Azerbaijan totaled $4.4 billion, increasing by 1.88 times versus the same period of last year.
Oil prices in world markets continue to fall. One barrel of 'Brent' oil currently costs just more than $86, while the price of the WTI oil is $80.5 per barrel.
Such a level of world oil brands' prices is the lowest in the last 4 years. Since June 2014, the oil prices have fallen by over 25 percent (from $106 per barrel).
The official exchange rate on Nov. 3 is 0.7844 AZN/USD.