BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan.21
By Zeyni Jafarov – Trend:
Azerbaijan's foreign exchange market has now normalized, despite the fact that two weeks ago the volume of foreign currency sales increased many times, Gulnara Haydarshina, Deputy Head of the Market Analysis Department of Gazprombank, told Trend.
According to Haydarshina, after such an increase, the volume of currency sales at the auction of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan CBA returned to their previous ranges and, having decreased 2.1 times at the last auction, amounted to $66.4 million.
Thus, the situation in the foreign exchange market in Azerbaijan is stable, the population's demand for foreign currency has normalized, said the Gazprombank representative.
Haydarshina also noted that the CBA immediately gave a clear signal of its intention to maintain a stable exchange rate of the manat and special attention to this issue throughout 2021.
“The country has sufficient resources to maintain a stable exchange rate of its national currency. Azerbaijan is one of the most secured international reserves of the CIS countries. As of early 2021, Azerbaijan's international reserves, taking into account the assets of the State Oil Fund (SOFAZ), amount to about $ 50 billion, which exceeds 100 percent of the country's GDP, providing coverage for 57 months of imports,” she stressed.
At the initial foreign exchange auctions in 2021, the CBA sold $142.2 million and $100.1 million to Azerbaijani banks, which exceeded the standard volume of currency sales.
(1 USD = 1.7 AZN on Jan. 21)
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