BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 18
By Zeyni Jafarov - Trend:
Azerbaijani manat exchange rate against foreign currencies was formed in accordance with the ratio of supply and demand in the foreign exchange market in 2020, Trend reports on Feb. 18 citing the review of the monetary policy of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA).
According to the CBA, despite the negative impact of the ongoing processes in the external environment, stability in the Azerbaijani foreign exchange market was maintained as a result of joint actions of the government and the CBA.
In the reporting period, there was a decrease in the volume of transactions in the foreign exchange market, which was associated with the weakening of foreign economic transactions in connection with the pandemic.
According to the CBA, the cost of transactions in the non-cash foreign exchange market for 12 months of 2020 decreased by 6.7 percent compared to 2019, amounting to $25.9 billion.
The CBA continued to organize the auctions for the implementation of foreign exchange sales of the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) in 2020.
The information about each auction was announced to the market participants through the Bloomberg terminal before the auction. In total, 102 foreign exchange auctions were held at the CBA in 2020.
The official rate of the Azerbaijani manat to the US dollar for the past year was set on the basis of the average rate for interbank transactions. The daily rate of the Azerbaijani manat against the US dollar amounted to 1.7 manat ($1).
The foreign currency purchase rates set by the banks were close to the official rate. Thus, the average daily purchase rate of commercial banks amounted to 1.6991 manat (99 cents) while the selling rate - 1.7025 manat ($1.001).
The difference between the official rate and the average daily purchase rate of commercial banks was 0.009 manat ($0.005) while the difference between the selling rate was 0.0025 manat ($0.001).
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