Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 11
By Azad Hasanli - Trend:
As of Sept. 1, 2015, the total amount of bank deposits and deposits of physical and legal entities drawn by the credit organizations of Azerbaijan totaled 17.658 billion manat, the Azerbaijani Central Bank's report as of Jan.-Aug. 2015 says.
According to the CBA report, the deposit base of banks declined by 3 percent in August, increased by 16.67 percent since early 2015, while in annual terms - increased by 20.6 percent.
For comparison, as of August 1, 2015, the total amount of deposits in Azerbaijani banks amounted to 18.214 billion manat, as of Jan. 1 - 15.453 billion manat, as of September 1, 2014 - 14.558 billion manat.
As of August 2015, the deposits in national currency - manat amounted to 4.434 billion manat, of which 1.666 billion manat - demand deposits, 2.769 billion manat - term deposits.
According to the report, during the period, the deposits in freely convertible currency amounted to 13.224 billion (3.448 billion manat - demand deposits, 9.776 billion manat - term deposits).
Thus, as of September 1, the deposits in manat hit 25.1 percent, in foreign currency - 74.9 percent of the total deposit base of banks. For comparison, as of 2015, some 50.1 percent was formed through manat deposits, while 49.9 percent of the banks' deposit base was formed through the deposits in foreign currency.
As of 2014, the deposits in national currency amounted to 7.743 billion manat, of which 2.734 billion manat - demand deposits, 5.009 billion manat - term deposits. The deposits in foreign currency amounted to 7.710 billion manat, of which 1.799 billion manat - demand deposits, 5.911 billion manat - term deposits.
The volume of the physical entities' deposits in Azerbaijani banks amounted to 7.320 billion manat. The vast majority accounted for the foreign currency deposits (74.76 percent or 5.472 billion manat.
The volume of deposits in foreign currency increased twofold (as of September 1, 2014, this figure was 2.546 billion manat) compared to August 2014, by 0.1 percent (5.466 billion manat) compared to July 2014 and by 1.9 times (2.845 billion manat) compared to early 2015.
The population's bank deposits decreased by 3.75 percent compared to the previous month. They increased by 2.8 percent as of early 2015 and by 4.68 percent compared to the same period of 2014.
The growing share of deposits in foreign currency, observed since February, was caused by the devaluation of the national currency. Thus, the official exchange rate was set at 1.05 manat upon the decision of the Board of Directors of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan on February 21, 2015.
There are 43 banks, two of which are the state-owned banks in Azerbaijan.
All banks in the country are the members of the Azerbaijan Deposit Insurance Fund, but three of them currently have restrictions on deposit.
The official exchange rate is 1.0478 AZN/USD Oct. 11.