Azerbaijan's central bank is carrying out
tight monetary policy to preserve stability, its head Elman Rustamov told the former Soviet republic's parliament on Wednesday.
Bowing to pressure from the oil price slump, the Azeri government cut the projected oil price in this year's budget to $25 per barrel earlier this year and moved the currency to a managed float, easing pressure on foreign exchange reserves.
The manat currency traded at 1.7318 per dollar on Wednesday, a new low. Some banks had halted or limited sales of hard currency to $100 per person in recent weeks, raising fears of another devaluation.
"The manat's rate has adapted to float under the oil price of $45-$55 per barrel," Rustamov said. "If oil price rises or declines by $10 from that level, revenues of citizens grow or decline by 1.7 billion manats."
The Azeri central bank raised its refinancing rate to 15 percent from 9.5 percent on Sept. 9.
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