Report experts: Central Bank may start manat intervention

Baku. 29 March. REPORT.AZ/ Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) can reduce the number of regular currency auctions organized in odd-numbered days of the week. In the future, their number will be adjusted to the current market conditions.

Analytical Group of Report News Agency believes that this is due to reduced demand for foreign currency in the current period, as well as the lack of need for transfers of the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan Republic (SOFAZ) to the state budget.

Yesterday, on March 28, SOFAZ auctioned 100 million dollars, but the demand of commercial banks was 0.5% or 0.5 million USD. This shows stabilization of the foreign exchange market and meet the demand for the foreign currency needed to import operations. Rising oil prices, the stabilization of the global economic situation has led not only to a reduction in demand for the currency in Azerbaijan, but also an increase in supply in recent days.

Report experts believe that if in the coming days AZN significantly strengthened, the CBA can realize manat intervention and thus stabilize the exchange rate of manat. However, intervention is possible in case of depreciation of below 1,50 AZN/USD. In any case, the dollar will depend on oil prices and changes in exchange rates of national currencies of trade partners.