Manat Strengthened in Record Way

on the foreign exchange auction of the Central Bank on February 9 the manat strengthened against the dollar immediately at a record 9.64 kopecks, or 5.3%, to 1.7301 manats per US dollar.

This is the sharpest one-off appreciation of the national currency in the past 14 months.

For the first 9 days of February the manat strengthened against the dollar by 19 kopecks or 9.9%. On February 2^nd the official rate of AZN stood at 1.92 per dollar.

One can predict that commercial banks will reduce the rate for buying the dollar from the population to 1.58-1.60 manat, and will sell it at 1.73 manat per USD.

Experts still point out that such a sharp strengthening of the manat has no real economic reasons and are confident it is a bank speculation.

Thus, the Head of Public Initiatives Center, Gubad Ibadoglu noted that the foreign exchange market has only two players and both are government agencies - the Central Bank and the State Oil Fund.

“One of these bodies forms the supply, while the other forms the demand. The State Oil Fund and the Central Bank conduct their activities not based on economic laws, but on the basis of administrative methods. Therefore, it is not difficult to devalue or strengthen the manat when required,” he said.   -71D-