Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

Fluctuations of euro exchange rate in Azerbaijan will not affect the country's imports and exports.

The remarks were made by a source in the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) who spoke to the Trend Agency on March 14.

The official exchange rate of manat to euro set by the CBA amounted to 1.0691 manat per one euro at the beginning of the year. By early February, it dropped to 1.0577 manat, but reached 1.0807 manat per one euro in early March.

"Currently, euro exchange rate is determined by "crossing" the exchange rates of AZN/USD and USD/EUR. Therefore, change of euro exchange rate when the conditions of AZN/USD are stable depends on the dynamics of the USD/EUR exchange rate. Theoretically, the price hike of euro to manat ensures the competitive (price) superiority of local products. At the same time, the exchange rate of AZN/EUR regularly changes this or that way," the source said.

The source went on to note that in the past month, the appreciation of euro by 1.8 percent was correlated with this trend, slightly exceeding the standard deviation of the monthly exchange rate of EUR/AZN in the post-crisis period which amounted to 1.2 percent.

"Moreover, no matter how euro has risen in price over the past month, this process does not cover the depreciation of the European currency which occurred in the previous two months, and the steady exchange rate doesn't exceed the figures of mid-December last year," the source said.

In other words, similar volatility in the foreign exchange market occurs often enough, the source noted.

"In terms of bilateral change of euro exchange rate over a protracted time, it is difficult to speak about the decisive impact of these changes on imports and exports. The current exchange rate policy fully complies with the requirements of macroeconomic stability, and the fluctuations of the exchange rate in the foreign exchange markets don't bother the Azerbaijani economy," the source said.