Trade settlement in national currencies to boost Azerbaijani, Turkish economies

"The use of the Azerbaijani manat and the Turkish lira in the mutual trade settlement is very important, as it will reduce costs, strengthen risk control and reduce the sensitivity of the countries’ foreign exchange reserves to the external factors," the minister said.

"The trade settlement in national currencies will also eliminate the negative consequences associated with foreign currency deficit, especially during the crisis period," the minister said. "The elimination of the risk of exchange rate change will reduce the uncertainty in the prices on imported goods, as well as contradictions in foreign trade."

Tufenkci said that the Turkey-Azerbaijan relations are based on the brotherhood of peoples, which is above than the economic and diplomatic interests.

"The relations between the two states, one nation - Turkey and Azerbaijan are at the highest level and will be further intensified," the minister said.

He added that meanwhile, the current unstable situation in the world economy also affected the mutual trade between the countries.

"The export of Turkish goods to Azerbaijan amounted to $2.9 billion in 2014, while $2 billion in 2015," he said. "The import of Azerbaijani goods amounted to $291 million in 2014 and $232 million in 2015."

"Turkey invested $1.9 billion in Azerbaijan in 2014, $276 million in 2015," he added. "Azerbaijani investments in the Turkish economy totaled $884 in 2014 and $839 million in 2015."

He said that Turkey intends to be among the top ten economies in the world by 2023 and much was done for this purpose in 2002-2016.

"Turkey wants to strengthen its economy by simplifying and enhancing trade security with the regional countries," he said. "For this purpose, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered Russia, Iran and China to make trade settlements in national currencies. The negotiations on this issue have already begun."

"Switching to the trade settlements with those countries in national currencies will mainly allow carrying out trade settlements with Turkey without using dollar and euro," the minister said.

He added that Russia has positively responded to this initiative and the officials said that perhaps, the actions will be taken to make the trade settlements in the national currency in a short period of time.

"Iran's Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani also supported Erdogan's proposal and said that Tehran always stands for the use of national currencies in trade," the minister said. "The first currency swap was conducted between China and Turkey November 26, 2016. We believe that we will get some results in the near future."