BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 29. The Central Bank
of Azerbaijan (CBA) continues to use its existing monetary policy
instruments to boost activity in the interbank market and keep
short-term interest rates within the targeted range, and no
additional measures are currently planned in this regard, Governor
of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) Taleh Kazimov said,
Trend's
correspondent reports from the event.
He made the remarks at a press conference on Thursday following
a meeting on the parameters of the interest rate corridor.
According to him, the Central Bank’s main monetary policy target
is not the money supply but the AZIR interest rate formed in the
interbank money market.
“Our main benchmark is AZIR, and our goal is to keep it within
our interest rate corridor,” Kazimov said.
The CBA governor noted that the lower bound of the interest rate
corridor had also been reduced as part of previous monetary policy
decisions. The move was intended to increase activity in the
interbank market, taking into account the banking sector’s existing
liquidity.
“We took this step not to reduce the Central Bank’s
participation in the interbank market, but to encourage banks to
participate more actively in the market, taking liquidity
conditions into account,” he emphasized.
According to Kazimov, activity in the interbank market has
increased since September 23. Therefore, no additional measures are
currently needed.
“We have the relevant instruments and use them to maintain
liquidity at a level that keeps AZIR within our target range,” the
CBA governor said.
Addressing food inflation, Kazimov noted that the factors
driving price increases in this segment are global in nature. As a
result, the scope for direct monetary policy measures to curb food
inflation is limited.
The CBA governor added that its analysis also examines price
trends across individual product groups.
