Dollarization on Azerbaijani bank deposits rise to 55.1pct
By Ofeliya Afandiyeva
The volume of population’s bank deposits decreased by 4.5 percent to $4.8 billion in Azerbaijan in the period of January-March 2020, local media reported citing Central Bank of the Republic of Azerbaijan (CBA) on April 30.
Thus, during the reporting period, the population's deposits in foreign currency amounted to 2.6 billion increasing by 1 percent or 55.1 percent of all deposits.
Note that in 2019, the share of foreign currency deposits was 52.2 percent.
In the meantime, Central Bank reported that in January-March, the volume of deposits in the national currency decreased by 10.4 percent to $2.1 billion or 44.9 percent of all deposits.
Moreover, as of March 31, 2020, the volume of bank deposits of residents amounted to $4.5 billion, while non-residents - $269.3 million.
Based on the report of the Central Bank, from the beginning of the year, the volume of residents' deposits decreased by 5 percent, whereas the volume of non-resident deposits increased by 5.2 percent.
Overall, as of April 1, the volume of savings and deposits in banks amounted to $14.1 billion, which is 2.7 percent less than the figure at the end of 2019.
It should mention that according to the Director of the Monetary Policy Department of the CBA Azer Alasgarov, dollarization in Azerbaijan reached its peak, totaling about 80 percent in early 2017, but began to decline gradually during the year and it decreased by 10 percentage points by the end of the year.
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