Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 29
By Anvar Mammadov – Trend:
The Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) intends to keep inflation at 6-8 percent in 2018, says a CBA statement on main areas of monetary policy for 2018 and medium-term period, issued Dec. 29.
The statement says that for this purpose, the Central Bank is ready to use all the mechanisms and tools available to it.
“A number of foreign and domestic factors can create problems in achieving macroeconomic stability goals. First of all, they include oil prices in world markets that are very low as compared to the forecast, and worsening of the balance of payments as a result of a decrease in economic activity of Azerbaijan’s main trade partners,” says the statement.
“Moreover, the continued rise in global food prices may lead to an additional export of inflation. These and other risks are in the focus of attention of the Azerbaijani government and the Central Bank,” says the statement.
A low level of inflation will also became one of the directions of the Central Bank’s macroeconomic policy in the medium term, according to the statement.
“Low and predictable inflation removes uncertainty, and also allows households and enterprises to make decisions on fees and investments on a broader planning horizon. The central bank sees the inflation targeting mode as an optimal monetary policy regime in the medium and long term, and will continue working in order to implement the conditions for switching to this mode,” says the statement.
According to the forecast of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), inflation rate will be seven percent in Azerbaijan in 2018, while the World Bank (WB) expects the inflation to stand at five percent in the country next year.
According to Azerbaijan’s State Statistics Committee, inflation stood at 13.4 percent in Azerbaijan in January-November 2017.