Report experts: Strengthening of US-dollar will reduce SOFAZ assets

Baku. 25 October. REPORT.AZ/ The assets of the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) in January-September of the current year increased by $ 2.873 billion or 8.8 % and amounted to $ 36.02 billion.

Analytical Group of Report News Agency informs, the reason for such a large increase in funds was the factor of declining the dollar exchange rate in the global currency market during the first three quarters in 2017.

Notably, in the investment portfolio of SOFAZ US-dollar assets are equal to 48.2% or $ 17.36 billion. The portfolio also includes 10.64 billion EUR (34.8%), 1.355 billion GBP (5%), gold and other currencies (3.5%) worth $ 1,245 billion.

Analytical Group of Report News Agency informs, during reporting period all currencies in SOFAZ's investment portfolio excluding Turkish lira all currencies have risen against US-dollar. As a result of increase in these currencies the the Fund's investment portfolio has earned about $ 1.77 billion.

According to the forecasts of the analytical group, during the first nine months SOFAZ’s earnings from shares were over $ 0.5 bln: “SOFAZ's share portfolio is equal to 13.7% or $ 4.93 billion. From the beginning of this year, the stock markets increased by 10% with conservative calculations.

Also about $ 50 million was from real estate income. If we collect revenues from the whole sector, SOFAZ's investment portfolio revenues will amount to $ 2.6 billion in the first 9 months”.

Analytical Group of Report News Agency informs, taking into account the high likelihood of strengthening of the US-dollar in the coming years, SOFAZ's investment portfolio is expected to decrease. At the same time, according to the project of the state budget of Azerbaijan in 2018, SOFAZ’s transfer will be increased by about 50% up to 9.2 billion AZN or $ 5.4 bln, which will lead to decline in foreign exchange reserves.