Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

The Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) has placed $4.09 billion in securities in the first two months of 2014, its statistics report shows.

The figure is 28.66 percent of the CBA's total amount of reserve assets.

The amount placed in securities in the same period in 2013 was $4.19 billion of the total amount of the CBA reserves.

CBA also said $9.93 billion of the reserve assets are in the accounts of the other central banks, the Bank for International Settlements and the International Monetary Fund.

Their volume increased by 41.45 percent compared to the same period in 2013, the report noted.

The total amount of the CBA reserve assets in foreign currency in the first two months of 2014 increased by 21.24 percent and reached $14.27 billion.

The CBA reserves stored in foreign currency amounted to $14.03 billion by late February.

The total amount of the CBA currency reserves exceeded $14.7 billion in the first quarter of 2014, which amounted to $12.33 billion in the first quarter of 2013.

The CBA plans to increase the volume of its reserves to $16 billion by late 2014.

The rapid growth of the currency reserves was the main factor for the formation of a strong macroeconomic buffer and the sensitivity reduction of domestic economy against external shocks.

The increase in reserves led to the maintenance of the net investment position of the country at an acceptable level.