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Azerbaijani banks to repay AZN 1.2 billion in external debt

10 June 2009 15:39 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Vahab Rzayev - APA-Economics. Azerbaijan-based commercial banks are required to pay AZN 1.2 billion in external debt in 2009 and AZN 735 million in 2010, said Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services in its first full report on Azerbaijan banking system titled "Bank Industry Risk Analysis: Azerbaijan’s Young, Fragmented Banking System Increasingly Affected By Global Crisis".

According to the report, banks repaid AZN 218 million in January and February 2009 in accordance with the debt repayment schedule.

The external debt to GDP ratio is 8.5%, while foreign liabilities of banks remain controlled at 23% of total bank liabilities at year end 2008.

Foreign liabilities grow rapidly in recent years to AZN 1.5 billion at year end 2008 and the bulk of liabilities are due by state-owned International Bank of Azerbaijan (50.2% state-owned).

Standard & Poor’s underscores the stability of the banking sector in repaying and servicing foreign debt in the light of adequate level of liquidity: cash and other liquid assets of the banking system amounted to AZN 3.7 billion at year-end 2008.