Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 21
By Anvar Mammadov – Trend:
Further strengthening of the Azerbaijani manat rate could have led to a number of macro and microeconomic risks, Elman Rustamov, head of the country’s Central Bank (CBA), said.
He was speaking Nov. 21 at a plenary session of the Azerbaijani Parliament during discussion of the country’s draft state budget for 2018.
“Since the beginning of the year, Azerbaijani manat has strengthened by four percent, and since late February - by 11.5 percent,” he said.
“Over the past nine months, Azerbaijani manat was under pressure of further growth. From a microeconomic point of view, this could discourage and reduce competitiveness of investments and new export directions, and, from a macroeconomic point of view, the strengthening of Azerbaijani manat would lead to worsening of the balance of payments and increase in imports.”
He said that the macroeconomic re-balancing made it possible to significantly reduce the use of oil revenues.
“The volume of transfers from the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) to the country’s national budget decreased three times, in addition, Azerbaijan’s strategic currency reserves were saved,” Rustamov said.