BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 19
By Eldar Janashvili – Trend:
The annual inflation rate amounted to less than three percent in Azerbaijan in May, Trend reports on June 19 referring to the recent meeting of the board of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan dedicated to the monetary policy.
The annual inflation rate has declined. The 0.5 percent-deflation was observed in May. The annual inflation reached 2.9 percent.
The inflation rate related to the food amounted to 5.7 percent, 1.4 percent - non-food products and 0.4 percent – services over the past 12 months.
Amid the uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, a reduction in aggregate demand with a decrease in consumer and investment spending is the main reducing factor.
Besides a decrease in food inflation rate, the seasonal decrease in prices for agricultural products and the continued decline in the world food prices (-10.5 percent for five months of 2020) also affect the indicators.
The results of monitoring of the enterprises in the real sector show that the inflation expectations declined during last month.
In accordance with a survey conducted in May, inflationary expectations decreased in the non-oil industry, construction, trade and services, taking into account the previous month.
In accordance with the updated forecasts, the inflation rate may reach 3-3.5 percent by the end of 2020, not going beyond the current macroeconomic policy and within the target range (4 ± 2 percent). Depending on the processes taking place in the economy, the forecasts will be regularly updated until the end of the year.
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