Devaluation of Manat Inevitable - Expert

The official rate of the manat as of February 17 is 0.7853 manat / $ 1. This is 0.0009 manat below the "solid rate," which the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) held since January last year - 0.7844 manat / $ 1.

As the expert economist Samir Aliyev told Turan, depreciation of the national currency is a long-term process, and it is connected to the inconvenience of holding it at a high level. "Every year CBA spent for these purposes $ 2.3 billion or more than 1.5 billion manat, which is 15% of foreign exchange reserves. If it was not for this factor, risk tolerance would have doubled in Azerbaijan for six years. Moreover, the devaluation of the manat is inevitable if the government intends to increase the real possibilities of non-oil sector," he said.

Previously CEO of CBA Elman Rustamov in an interview with The Financial Times noted that CBA is planning to abandon the peg of the national currency to the US dollar and to gradually move to a more flexible policy. According to him, any weakening of the currency will be gradual, and the Central Bank "will take into account the interests of the population."

Central Bank, according to its head, from February 16, moved from peg of the manat to the dollar in favor of the currency basket of the dollar and the euro, where the share of the euro in the early stages will be 20-30%. As a result of the established corridor, Central Bank will continue to operate in the foreign exchange market. --17D-