Azerbaijani banks' demand for foreign currency edges up

16 October 2020 17:37 (UTC+04:00)

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The Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) held a foreign exchange auction with the participation of the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ), and sold $64.7 million to Azerbaijani banks, up by $1.8 million compared to the previous auction, Trend reports citing CBA.

In accordance with SOFAZ’s data, from January through August 2020 the fund sold the foreign currency in the amount of $5.3 billion.

The average rate of manat has been formed at 1.7 manat ($1) at the auction.

The first foreign exchange auction during a long period was held on March 10, 2020, with the participation of the State Oil Fund. Azerbaijani banks purchased $323.2 million at that auction.

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

A decision was made in March 2020 to hold the extraordinary currency auctions in connection with 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.