BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec.9
By Tamilla Mammadova – Trend:
According to the President of the National Bank of Georgia, Koba Gvenetadze, the National Bank will continue intervening in the foreign exchange market for the rest of 2020 and in 2021, Trend reports via Georgian media.
Gvenetadze says that the interventions will continue depending on the situation. At the same time, he stresses that NBG doesn’t sell dollars for maintaining the rate.
"Since the beginning of 2020, the National Bank has sold $886 million. For the rest of the current year, we will continue to supply currency to the market given the current situation. We think that in 2021 currency will continue to be sold at least in the first half of the year. Once again, during the global recession, it is difficult to predict. I would like to clarify that the purpose of the National Bank’s interventions is not to maintain the rate or to interfere with the market dynamics of the exchange rate. The purpose of the interventions is to provide foreign currency to the market when it lacks it. This is done to avoid the so-called behavioral market failure," he says.
To stabilize the Georgian lari amid its depreciation, NBG sold $20 million at a foreign exchange auction on March 13, $40 million on March 19, and 40 million laris ($13.09 million) on March 25.
On April 27, the National Bank of Georgia sold another $20 million to stabilize the Georgian lari after further depreciation.
The National Bank of Georgia put up $40 million at a foreign exchange auction on June 10; however, only $29.65 million was sold.
On May 21, the bank sold $40 million to stabilize the Georgian lari, on June 18 - $20 million, on July 2- $20 million, on July 22 - $40 million, on August 13 - $20 million, on August 27 - $40 million, on September 16 - $40 million, on September 22 - $40 million, on October 2- $20 million, on October 9 - $30 million, on October 19 - $30 million, on October 22 - $40 million, on October 27 - $40 million, on October 29 - $40 million, on November 2 - $60 million, on November 11 - $37.2 million, on November 18 - $30 million, on November 25 - $46.55 million, on December 3 - $19.82 million.
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