Central Bank Does Not Want to Reveal Amount of Currency, Proposed at Auction by Commercial Banks

According to the changes in the rules of currency auctions, which entered into force in the beginning of October, commercial banks have acquired the right to sell foreign currency at auction, along with the Central Bank and the State Oil Fund. However, according to these same changes, data of the particular auction are not disclosed. The Central Bank only reports the manat rate at the beginning and the end of the auction. Information about the amount of foreign currency supply in a single auction of State Oil Fund, the Central Bank and commercial banks is covered by a veil of mystery, which creates additional difficulties for the statistics and tracking of trends in the foreign exchange market.

Attempts to obtain information and comments on this issue have not been successful in the Central Bank. The appropriate inquiry by Turan was left unanswered.

The financial expert Akram Hasanov said that things are not the best and it is the cause of opacity.

"So they have something to hide. The exchange rate in Azerbaijan is determined by administrative means. The auction is a game. Otherwise, the information would be open. If they make public all information about the auction, you will find that the exchange rate is artificial," he said.

SOFAZ, summarizing October, distributed information that in October it sold $ 371 million at auction.

The Central Bank from time to time intervenes in the foreign exchange market. In October foreign exchange reserves fell by $ 127 million.

Overall, 7 foreign exchange auctions were held in October. The dollar changed in October in a versatile way. So, from October 3, there was a decline of the American currency from 1.6170 manat to 1.5969 manat on 18 October.

From October 19 began growth of the dollar, and as of October 31 it was 1.6381 AZN.

Before the new rules, information policy on the trends in the currency market was more transparent. So, in September, there were 8 auctions, where the State Oil Fund and the Central Bank in total offered $ 1 billion 150 million ($ 850 million and $ 300 million respectively).

Currency has been sold for $ 731 million ($ 631 million by the State Oil Fund and $ 100 million by Central Bank)

Demand for the US currency in September amounted to $ 1 billion 321 million 57 thousand.   ----71D