Finance
Azerbaijan Central Bank Bought Over $2bn in 2026 as Manat Holds at 1.70
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Azerbaijan's central bank bought more than $2 billion of foreign currency in the first seven months of 2026, supporting a manat that remained unchanged at 1.7000 per US dollar during 21–25 September, according to weekly data reported by Trend.
The purchases, described in an AzerNews analysis published on 2 August, mean the bank has been absorbing dollars from the market rather than selling them to defend the peg. Governor Taleh Kazimov has said the manat's strength against trading partners' currencies has helped reduce imported inflation.
Against other currencies, the picture is more mixed. The average weighted AZN/EUR rate was 1.94252 for the week, with the manat weaker against the euro by 0.0178 on the official rate. The official rate against 100 Russian rubles fell 0.017 manat, and the Turkish lira moved minimally.
The stability sits alongside weak output. The ADB cut Azerbaijan's 2026 growth forecast to 1.6% on oil-sector contraction, and first-quarter GDP shrank 0.3% year on year. Foreign-currency inflows from hydrocarbon exports and transfers from the State Oil Fund are therefore doing more work than domestic growth in supporting the currency.
For businesses, a fixed dollar rate gives predictability to importers and dollar-linked contracts. It also means competitiveness against neighbours is largely determined by their currencies and by domestic costs, not by manat depreciation. Exporters outside oil and gas face the sharpest squeeze from a strong manat.
The key variables to watch are oil prices, the pace of central bank purchases and the State Oil Fund's transfer needs. If hydrocarbon revenues weaken further, the balance between accumulating reserves and funding the budget will become harder to maintain. At current volumes, the central bank retains considerable room to keep the rate steady.
The official figures also show the manat's role as a stable anchor in a volatile neighbourhood. With the Turkish lira and Russian ruble more volatile, Azerbaijani importers sourcing from Türkiye and Russia benefit from the exchange-rate cushion, while exporters selling into those markets see their products become relatively more expensive. This trade-off is likely to remain a feature of Azerbaijan's non-oil export story for as long as the dollar peg holds. Companies with euro or ruble exposure should model these cross-rate moves separately from the stable dollar rate.
