Policy of Strengthening Manat Designed for Short Time - Natig Jafarli

In fact, we should rejoice the fall of the dollar, but unfortunately the reasons for this are very simple and are designed for a short time, says Executive Secretary of the REAL movement, economist Natig Jafarli.

On his Facebook page, he noted that the reason for the fall of the dollar is the reduction in the manat rate by the Central Bank.

“Reducing the volume of AZN slows down economic activity, and macroeconomic indicators demonstrate the deepening of the crisis,” the economist said.

According to Jafarli, on Novruz holidays arrival of 20-30 thousand tourists from Iran and Arab countries is expected, and cheap dollars will be probably bought from them.

“Banks cannot give out loans, and they cannot collect previously issued loans. The main income of banks is connected with currency speculation,” Jafarli stressed.

At the same time, referring directly to the currency auction held on March 14, the expert said that banks purchased $ 35 million at a low rate, since they have USD, but no national currency.

“As a result, the dollar fell. Then, the Central Bank urgently offered the Central Bank another 20 million dollars at an auction and administratively forced banks to buy dollars for a high price, which resulted in the exchange rate to 1.7279 manat. And they call all this “a floating course,” he said.

The economist again noted that the national currency can be strengthened only in case of growth of exports, domestic production, reduction of dependence on imports, and large investors coming to the country.

“We do not observe any of this at the moment,” Jafarli concluded.

We note that the growth of the dollar against the manat stopped in February, at 1.92 manat per dollar. In February and the first half of March, the dollar rate fell from 1.92 to 1.7279 manat.

The Central Bank explains the reason for strengthening the national currency with applying a new mechanism of currency auctions and liquidating the margin limit between the commercial and official exchange rate.    ------71D