BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. Annual inflation in March 2023 was 13.6 percent, two percentage points below the peak recorded in September 2022, Trend reports citing the Central Bank of Azerbaijan.
According to the CBA, the ongoing strengthening of the nominal effective rate of the manat has a reducing effect on external factors of inflation.
"The nominal effective rate of the manat strengthened by 8.4 percent in 2022 and by 4.8 percent from January through April 2023. At the same time, decisions made on monetary conditions also limit demand-driven inflation factors,” the bank said. “The positive balance of the current account of the payment the balance sheet supports exchange rate stability, which is the main anchor of price stability.”
Besides, the CBA noted that favorable world prices for major export commodities and growth in non-oil and gas exports give grounds to expect that the current account will be in surplus at the end of the year.
“This is also reflected in the foreign exchange market. So, in four months of 2023, supply exceeded demand by 97 percent at foreign exchange auctions,” the bank said.
As the CBA also noted, actual inflation in the main trading partner countries was relatively low due to the impact of the slowdown in global economic activity, tightening monetary policy in most countries and the downward trend in world commodity prices.
According to the April report of the World Bank on commodity markets, prices for energy resources in March decreased by 6.3 percent, and for non-energy goods - by 2.2 percent, added the bank.
In 2022, the inflation rate in Azerbaijan made up 13.9 percent.