BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 2
By Eldar Janashvili – Trend:
According to monitoring of enterprises in real sector in March 2020, inflation expectations in Azerbaijan remained unchanged compared to February 2020, decreased in trade and increased in services and non-oil industry, Trend reports with reference to the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA).
A slight increase in inflation expectations of the population is temporary, and although annual inflation has risen slightly, it, has remained below the center of the target range as expected.
According to official statistics, annual inflation in Azerbaijan amounted to 3.3 percent in March 2020.The inflation for food amounted to six percent over the year, for non-food products - 1.2 percent, and for services - 1.2 percent.
The increase in food inflation is mainly due to a short-term increase in food demand in the context of strengthening quarantine regime, as well as an increase in local production and transportation costs.
Keeping the current framework of macroeconomic policy, the latest forecasts show that inflation will remain in the target range (4 ± 2 percent) in 2020.
Furthermore, as a result of the impact of coronavirus, economic growth in Azerbaijan in March decreased by 1.7 percent, from 2.8 to 1.1 percent.
In particular, the economic growth amounted to 6.7 percent in the non-oil sector from January through February 2020, and to 3.5 percent - in the first quarter. Over the month, the growth of the non-oil sector decreased by 3.2 percentage points.
The package of state economic support and synchronized macroprudential measures, which exceed four percent of gross domestic product (GDP), should help slow down the decline in demand and protect employment, CBA said.
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