Baku, Azerbaijan, May 2
By Anvar Mammadov - Trend:
Transition to settlements in national currencies will positively affect the rate of Azerbaijani manat, doctor of economic sciences, economist Muslim Ibrahimov told Trend.
"The transition to settlements in national currency will allow to create such an opportunity when our direct trade partners will have a certain manat share in their gold and foreign currency reserves. That is, the country's trade partner will buy our currency to pay for import of Azerbaijani products. In most cases, this influence will strengthen and allow to depend on the USD rate and US economic policy at a lesser extent, " Ibrahimov said.
He added that the manat will become a convertible currency at the regional level. In addition, this will lead to an increase in trade relations between the countries.
Presently, Azerbaijan is discussing transition to settlements in the national currency with Turkey, Iran and Russia.
In August 2016, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani visited Baku, where the sides agreed to expand financial cooperation and signed a number of documents. Particularly, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between heads of the central banks of the two countries.
In addition, Azerbaijan and Iran have previously signed a certain protocol on the transfer to settlements in the national currencies, but negotiations between Baku and Tehran have not yet yielded results.
The discussions are also underway with Russia on expanding payments in the national currencies in foreign trade operations.
As for Turkey, Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci recently told Trend that his country does not see any obstacle to switching to settlements in national currency with Azerbaijan.
"Unfortunately, we have already seen how negatively the currency fluctuations affected our economies. We believe that trade settlements in Turkish lira and Azerbaijani manats would be the most effective way to get rid of damage, which the currency fluctuations can cause to the economies of our countries," the minister said.
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