BAKU, Azerbaijan, February 16. Azerbaijani banks increased cash sales and purchases of foreign currency by 27 percent in 2022 compared to 2021, Trend reports citing the Azerbaijani Central Bank's monetary policy review.
According to the bank, this figure amounted to $5.1 billion.
Following the review, the US dollar accounted for 85.7 percent of these transactions.
Azerbaijan's non-cash foreign exchange market amounted to $31.7 billion from January through December 2022, which was 13.9 percent higher than in the same period in 2021. The US dollar made up 83.4 percent of total transactions, while other currencies – 16.6 percent.
Meantime, a total of 71.4 percent of non-cash transactions came from the intra-bank foreign exchange market from January through December 2022, whereas 28.6 percent – came from the inter-bank foreign exchange market.
Net foreign currency cash sales from January through December 2022 decreased by 5 times year over year due to high sales for most of the past year.