Azerbaijani banks foreign currency demand disclosed

20 October 2020 18:58 (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) on October 20, 2020, and sold $63.8 million to Azerbaijani banks, Trend reports citing CBA.

The demand from Azerbaijani banks was fully provided despite a decrease of 1.4 percent compared to the previous auction.

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 in 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.