Baku, Azerbaijan, August 8
By Tamilla Mammadova – Trend:
Lari today is significantly depreciated, but it is expected to stabilize by the end of the year, Trend reports with reference to investment research company Galt & Taggart.
According to the published report, the national currency is expected to strengthen.
“We expect lari to strengthen toward 2.75-2.80 against dollar through 2019 and further to 2.60-2.65 in 2020. Moreover, the recent rise in treasury yields indicate that market already priced in possible policy rate hike from National Bank of Georgia on 4 September meeting, which will also be lari positive,” the report said.
According to analysts from Galt & Taggart, the fundamental factors underlying the lari are positive (economic growth, external balance and others). Tourism figures in July were better than expected. Therefore, the current exchange rate of lari has a greater share of negative sentiment than macroeconomic indicators.
Since June 20, the lari against the dollar has fallen by 6.6 percent. If on June 20 the official rate of the lari to the dollar announced by the National Bank was 2.7871, then by August 1 it had already reached a record high of 2.9718 lari per one dollar. After that, on the same day, the National Bank sold over $32 million at auction; as a result of it the lari strengthened by 1.4 percent.