BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug. 24
By Zeyni Jafarov - Trend:
The foreign exchange market of Azerbaijan is supported by stable sales of currency from the State Oil Fund (SOFAZ), despite the significant rise in oil prices over the past yearç Andrey Melashchenko, Economist of Renaissance Capital investment company for the CIS, told Trend.
According to him, the reduction in the discount rate, which has been suspended since December last year, leads to a relatively smaller increase in lending and, accordingly, reduces the pressure on inflation.
In addition to the dynamics of rates, a significant factor affecting the growth and decline in lending is inflationary expectations of the population, which, in accordance with the estimates of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan, remained stable in June, Melashchenko said.
He noted that after the correction in the first half of the year, the loan portfolio in Azerbaijan began to grow again, in particular, by 4.9 percent in June. First of all, the growth of the client portfolio was due to consumer loans - by 12 percent.
At the same time, inflation in the country in July accelerated from 4.7 to 5.9 percent, which may force the Central Bank of Azerbaijan to raise the refinancing rate this year, Melashchenko said.
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