Over the 18% increase of e-commerce in Azerbaijan in 2018
By Mirsaid Ibrahimzade
Non-cash transactions accounted for 17 percent of all operations with payment cards in Azerbaijan in 2018.
This was stated by first deputy chairman of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan, Alim Guliyev, at the event dedicated to non-cash payments on February 28.
The transition to non-cash payments is one of the main goals set by banks, Guliyev stated.
"This contributes to ensuring the transparency of the economy. In recent years, we have been implementing measures in this direction, which are already bearing fruit," he said.
The volume of interbank payments in 2018 amounted to 274 billion manats ($ 160.7 billion).
Further, the Deputy Chairman noted that there is also an increase in e-commerce sphere.
"So, in 2017, the volume amounted to 36.4 billion manats ($21.35 billion), this year the volume increased by 18.7 percent."
However, the first deputy chairman of the Central Bank emphasized that despite this, Azerbaijan still lags behind the developed countries in these indicators.
Touching upon the non-cash payments which are undisputedly part and parcel of e-commerce, it should be noted that President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev approved the state program to expand digital payments in 2018-2020, in September of 2018, according to which in 2021 the annual amount of cashless payments in Azerbaijan will reach approximately 17 billion manats ($9.97 billion).
Implementation of the program will allow to increase the share of non-cash payments by seven percent annually.
In accordance with the program, the share of cash payments in transactions carried out in the country's economy will fall from 74 percent to 40 percent.
To speed up the implementation of the state program, three fundamental conditions and specific goals for each of them were defined. Creating a more supportive environment involves not only prohibiting regulations, but also the use of special incentive mechanisms.
In 2017, the volume of non-cash payments through Azerbaijan’s national payment system equaled 10.2 percent. Today, there are 66,100 POS-terminals and 2.5 million ATMs in the country.
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