BAKU, Azerbaijan, Nov. 25
By Nazrin Israfilova – Trend:
Currently, the fall in the rate of the Turkish lira will not seriously affect Azerbaijan's foreign trade turnover, Azerbaijani economist Elman Sadigov told Trend.
"I believe that this situation related to the exchange rate of the Turkish lira may affect the cooperation between Azerbaijan and Turkey in the oil and gas sector. It is known that Turkey is an importer of oil and gas, and the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) owns oil refineries in this country and made large investments. I think that there may be certain delays in payments for the purchased oil and gas," he said.
At the same time, the expert believes that even if there are problems with payments, Azerbaijan will not allow any interruptions in the supply of oil and gas to Turkey.
"We will continue to import and export the same goods, but we need to be prepared for delays in payments from Turkey. Taking into account that Italy is our largest partner in oil trade, the fall in the Turkish lira exchange rate will not have a catastrophic effect on Azerbaijan's foreign trade turnover. If there are certain negative consequences, our foreign exchange reserves and the current situation will make it possible to minimize them," Sadigov said.
It is noted that during the day, the Turkish lira fell by 20 percent against the US dollar. Thus, the official rate amounts to 13.15TL/1USD.