SOFAZ's assets are expected to soar seriously - FORECAST

Baku. 20 April. REPORT.AZ/ Assets of State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) will probably feature serious growth in II quarter of 2017.

Experts group of Report News Agency indicate oil prices above 50 USD/barrel, diverse currency reserves of SOFAZ gaining ground against US-dollar and rising gold prices as main reasons for this. Thus, British Pound, Euro, Turkish Lira, Chinese Yuan, Japanese Yen have strengthened against US-dollar since beginning of II quarter. Specifically, British Pound strengthened against US dollar by 2%, Lira – by 1%, Yen – by 2%. Gold price up by 2.3%.

The experts predict further strengthening of SOFAZ currency basket against US-dollar and growth of Fund’s assets in US-dollar equivalent. Notably, a positive tendency in stock markets will also cause the 12.9% of SOFAZ assets kept in shares to grow in value. At the same time stable incomes from immovable property will also contribute to the growth of assets.

Report’s analysts say that Euro also may strengthen if US Federal Reserve (Fed) doesn’t rise interest rate in June and pro-Euro candidate wins in French presidential election. This will have a positive impact on more than 35% of SOFAZ assets kept in Euro.

Notably, Oil Fund’s assets may further benefit from incomplete execution of planned transfers to Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) if such happens as some expert predict. The expert group predicts current $33.2 bln assets of SOFAZ to close to $35 bln by the end of II quarter.