Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 31
By Huseyn Veliyev - Trend:
The Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) has lowered inflation forecast for 2018 from 6-8 percent to 2-3 percent, Head of the CBA Elman Rustamov said at a meeting organized by the American Chamber of Commerce in Azerbaijan (AmCham).
“Last year, we had a double-digit inflation, but today we can say that average annual inflation is at 2.8 percent,” he said. “This year our target interval was 6-8 percent. However, this forecast was adjusted on Oct. 30.”
He noted that the only task of the CBA is to ensure price stability. “Price stability is of particular importance for households and businesses,” he said.
Rustamov also touched upon boosting the non-oil sector's activity, noting that this allows ensuring a significant current account surplus.
“The volatility that has been taking place in our foreign trade partners’ inflation rate during the year didn’t affect Azerbaijan as a whole,” he said. “Against this background, the growth of Azerbaijan’s strategic currency reserves continues, and its value exceeded $45 billion.”
He added that the strategic currency reserves will continue their growth until the end of the year.