Farhad Amirbayov: ‘‘Investments strengthen the manat’’

The best strategy to provide stability for the national currency is investment in the economy. This was announced today by the President of the Baku Interbank Currency Exchange (BBVB) Farhad Amirbayov in an interview with Vestnik Kavkaza, speaking about the government's ability to stabilize the manat.

Today the head of the Department of Social and Political Issues of the Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan, Ali Hasanov, said that the authorities will do their best to maintain a stable manat. "The manat is one of our national symbols and state attributes. The depreciation of the manat is also considered as the depreciation of our state," Ali Hasanov underlined.

In this regard, Farhad Amirbayov assumed that the state can choose the investment route. "There are three strategies. The first is not to notice anything. The second is to spend reserves and wait for changes. The third is to invest these reserves in their own country. I like this the most. Even if it is necessary to devalue, an investment strategy in any case is the better way. We will see specific steps of the authorities in this direction in the near future," the economist noted.

The expert stressed that the current pressure on world oil prices has reduced the manat. "It's often said that the price of oil turned into a cause for surprise, or disappointment. But I can say that for Azerbaijan this factor is less and less important, as oil production is falling now. Now we need to find new markets for our products. We shouldn’t sell crude oil, or gas, but process them. There is the same situation with agriculture: the development of the processing industry will strengthen the manat," Farhad Amirbayov said.

And another direction is the strengthening of economic ties with neighboring countries. "In this sense, we provide markets. We need to negotiate with our neighbors about exports of Azerbaijani goods and attracting foreign investments,’’ he explained.

After the devaluation in mid-February this year, when the Central Bank officially set a new value of $1 = $1.05 manat, the Azerbaijani national currency was fixed at a new frontier. So now the official rate is $1 to 1,048 manats.