Azerbaijani Banks To Purchase More Foreign Currency

The Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) held a new foreign exchange auction with the participation of the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) on September 14, 2021, Trend reports referring to the CBA.

According to the CBA, the demand from Azerbaijani banks at the auction increased by 11.4 percent compared to the previous auction and was fully met.

During the auction, the CBA sold $68.3 million to the local banks compared to $61.3 million sold at the previous auction.

At the end of the auction, the weighted average rate of the manat to the US dollar amounted to 1.7 AZN/USD.

The first foreign exchange auction for a long time was held with the participation of SOFAZ on March 10, 2020, during which Azerbaijani banks purchased $323.2 million.

The CBA began to conduct currency auctions through a one-way sale of currency in a competitive environment from mid-January 2017.

A decision was made in March 2020 to hold extraordinary currency auctions due to the increased demand of the population for foreign currency amid the failure of the OPEC + deal, which led to a sharp drop in oil prices.