BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 1. The Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) decided this week to raise the interest rate by 0.25 percentage points to 8.75 percent, Trend reports.
According to the CBA, the upper limit of the interest rate corridor was raised from 9.5 percent to 9.75 percent, and the lower limit - from 6.75 percent to seven percent.
This decision was made given the dynamics of factors that have a downward and upward impact on the price level in the internal and external environment. Further decisions on monetary policy will be made depending on the dynamics of inflation, the level of deviation of the forecast from the target, the CBA said.
Besides, in accordance with the base scenario of the CBA for this year, the annual inflation forecast of about eight percent remained unchanged.
The CBA also noted this week that by the decision of the CBA Board dated February 27 this year, the quota on tools of standing overnight deposit was increased to expand the efficiency of sterilization operations.
Meanwhile, Raiffeisen Bank International, based in Austria, expressed interest to support Azerbaijan in modernization of its economy.
The bank added that it will continue to focus on compliance issue in cooperation with Azerbaijan.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) Country Director Candice McDeigan said this week that ADB has already started preparing the new Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) for Azerbaijan for 2024-2028.
Besides, Azerbaijan and the World Bank (WB) discussed this week the next stage of preparation of the partnership framework program for 2023-2028.
Fitch Ratings, the international rating agency, has confirmed Azerbaijan's Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at 'BB+' with a Positive Outlook.
In addition, Fitch forecasted an increase in the net asset position of Azerbaijan's sovereign creditors by 10.9 percentage points in 2023-2024 to 68.7 percent of GDP, which is the highest indicator in the rating peer group.
Fitch Ratings also predicted a decrease in inflation in Azerbaijan to an average of 10.3 percent in 2023, and a decline in inflation to 7.3 percent in 2024 against the backdrop of decline in commodity prices, mitigation of supply chain disruptions and reinforcement of the real effective exchange rate.
Regarding the GDP of Azerbaijan, the agency forecasted its growth in 2023-2024 at an average of 2.1 percent per year