Central Bank: Cash dollar sale by Azerbaijani banks sharply reduced

Baku. 14 May. REPORT.AZ/ Volume of monetary market of Azerbaijan in the first quarter of 2016 sharply reduced in comparison with the same period last year.

Report informs referring to the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA), during the reporting period the volume of foreign exchange transactions with the US-dollar declined in annual terms by 2.8 times, transactions with the Euro - by 2.7 times. According to the information, the dollar's share in total volume of transactions on foreign exchange market amounted to 82%, other currencies - 18%.

Decline on the foreign exchange market is also observed in segment of cash foreign currency in. During January-March 2016, net sales of US dollars by banks declined at an annual rate by 55 times to 79 million USD, transactions with the Euro by 3.5 times to 69 million EUR.

As stated in the Central Bank, decline in the foreign exchange market in the reporting period is related with supply and demand factors: "One of the main factors reducing demand for foreign currency was a decline of the volume of imports of goods and services. In addition, slowdown of dollarization process played a role in declining of demand."

In turn, decline in the exchange offers is mainly related with the reduction in sales of currency of the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan Republic (SOFAZ). Thus, volume of foreign currency sales decreased by 41% in comparison with the corresponding period of last year.

According to the information, 33 auctions have been held, at 12 auctions demand oversubscribed the offer, at 21 auctions completely satisfied. The average daily demand at auctions totaled 132 million USD, the proposal - 148 million dollars.. In the framework of currency auctions organized by the Central Bank, SOFAZ totally sold 1253 bln. USD.

Todatecurrencyreservesmake 4 billionUSD.