The transition to the floating rate of the national currency in Azerbaijan has justified itself, head of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) Elman Rustamov told reporters March 2.

“Given the current conditions, considering the situation in the global economy, this is the right decision, and it corresponds to strategic interests of Azerbaijan,” he said.

He went on to add that the Azerbaijani manat will remain in ‘floating’ mode until its stability is ensured.

Rustamov further said that Azerbaijani banks receive sufficient foreign currency volume through auctions.

“Today we hold auctions, and, as one can see, there are no other parallel processes on the market,” he said. “We have our own schedule in accordance with which we carry out the auctions.”

He said that the task of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan as the regulator is not to provide banks with foreign currency, but to prevent sharp fluctuations of the manat exchange rate.

“A revised state budget for 2016 has already been adopted, and it envisages the transfer program, which is the main channel for providing market with foreign currency,” Rustamov said.