Azerbaijani banks could channel another 4-6 billion manats into lending, said Taleh Kazimov, Chairman of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA), at a press conference.
He reminded that excluding required reserves, excess liquidity in the banking sector amounts to 6 billion manats:
"The banking sector fully complies with all our liquidity requirements. Even with those taken into account, according to general calculations, the banking sector has 4-6 billion manats in free funds. Banks can direct these funds either to capitalization or to lending."
According to Kazimov, interest rates on newly placed deposits of individuals and legal entities have decreased by 0.5 and 0.3 percentage points, respectively, compared to June 2023. Interest rates on newly issued loans have also declined: rates on loans to individuals fell by 0.2 percentage points, and on loans to legal entities by 0.3 percentage points:
"The comparison with June 2023 is not accidental. Since that period, the CBA began to lower the refinancing rate and over the year reduced it by a total of 0.75 percentage points. This decision also affected deposit and loan rates."