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Central Bank of Azerbaijanâ€™s foreign exchange reserves start to rise

03 June 2009 13:21 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Vahab Rzayev â€“ APA-Economics. As of June 1, the Central Bank of Azerbaijanâ€™s official foreign exchange reserves stood at US$5.026 million, up 16.3% or $702.6 million from a year ago.

However, foreign exchange reserves diminished by 18.1% or $1.111 billion during January-May, said the Central Bank of Azerbaijan.

Against the backdrop of global financial crisis, the foreign exchange reserves decreased rapidly during January-April. However, the trend changed up in May when reserves grew by 2.4% or AZN 119.4 million.

The decrease during four months running accompanied the rapid accumulation of currency reserves over the recent years.

Amid the global crisis, the central bank loosened monetary policy and increased market intervention by pouring foreign currencies into the market.

Against the backdrop of currency devaluation in neighbouring Russia, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Ukraine and other countries amid the global financial crisis, Azerbaijan managed to keep up the home currency easily.

The decrease in foreign exchange reserves has been common for many central banks across the world.