BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 31. Twenty-three out of
34 foreign exchange auctions scheduled since April 1 have not taken
place due to a lack of demand for foreign currency, Chairman of the
Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) Taleh Kazimov said.
Kazimov made the remarks at a press conference on the parameters
of the interest rate corridor, Trend's correspondent reports from the event.
He said the cancellation of the auctions indicates that there
was no demand for foreign currency at those sessions.
"We offered $70 million for sale at an auction, but there were
no buyers. This situation has been observed for the first time
since 2016-2017. Moreover, no foreign exchange auction was held at
all in May," Kazimov said.
The CBA chairman said one of the main reasons behind this trend
is the interbank foreign exchange trading platform launched in
2022.
"We created an interbank foreign exchange platform on the
Bloomberg platform in 2022. 2024 was probably the year when the
highest trading volume was recorded on this platform. Banks are now
meeting their foreign currency needs among themselves. When some
banks have demand, other banks with sufficient foreign currency
reserves conduct transactions with them. Therefore, there is no
longer a need for the Central Bank's foreign exchange auctions.
This is a very important point," Kazimov added.
