Baku, Azerbaijan, July 10
By Sara Israfilbayova - Trend:
The nominal rate of the Azerbaijani manat will reach 1.72 against the US currency by the end of 2019, Zhannur Ashigali, associate director of the Sovereign Ratings and Forecasting Group at Russia’s Analytical Credit Rating Agency (ACRA), told Trend.
The expert noted that by 2021, the rate of the manat will be about 1.8 to the dollar.
"In the medium term (up to and including 2021), while the current account remains at the level of 7 to 9 percent of GDP, we expect a very smooth trend towards a weakening of the national currency of Azerbaijan," Ashigali said.
On February 21, 2015, the Board of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) conducted the first devaluation of the national currency. The manat rate was reduced from 0.7844 to 1.05 manat per dollar. Later, on December 21 of the same year, the CBA announced the transition to a floating exchange rate of the national currency, and the rate was set at 1.55 manat per dollar.
($1=1.7 AZN on July 10)
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