BAKU, Azerbaijan, Sept.19
By Zeyni Jafarov – Trend:
The last meeting of the Board of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) dedicated to the monetary-loan policy emphasized that the annual inflation remained below the center of the target range, Trend reports with reference to CBA.
As the bank noted, according to official statistics, amid the weak total demand, in August 2020 prices declined by 0.2 percent and annual inflation made up 2.8 percent. The monthly deflation took place mainly due to the cheapened food products.
Under the impact of seasonal factors, the food prices went down by 0.5 percent in the reporting month, while prices for non-food products and services remained unchanged. In general, the dynamics of actual inflation was in line with forecasts.
According to the bank, the results of the monitoring of real sector enterprises confirm that inflationary expectations continue to decline. Given the previous month, in August, inflationary expectations decreased in the non-oil industry and the service sector, while in the construction and trade sectors they remained almost unchanged. However, as surveys show, inflationary expectations are sensitive to external and internal environmental factors.
Reportedly, despite the above, the inflation forecast has been changed toward drop mainly due to the July-August deflation. According to the forecasts updated in September, annual inflation in Azerbaijan will be expectedly formed in the range of 3-3.2 percent, which is below the target range.
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