The Board of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) will consider the change in the discount rate and interest rate corridor.
Presently, the discount rate is 9.75%. Earlier, the change was considered in December 2018. Then the CBA decided to keep the discount rate unchanged.
The CBA justified its decision by uncertainty in foreign markets.
“In the future, the reaction of monetary policy will depend on the dynamics and sustainability of inflation factors,” the CBA said.
There were favorable economic indicators for reducing the discount rate, namely, low inflation, recovery of economic growth, increase in the population’s income, etc. throughout 2018. This allowed the CBA to gradually reduce the discount rate from 15% to current 9.75%.
In total, the CBA reduced the discount rate four times during 2018: in February from 15% to 13%, in April from 13% to 11%, in June from 11% to 10%, and in October from 10% to 9.75%. The discount rate was kept unchanged in August and December 2018. (Trend/Business World Magazine)