Azerbaijan leads in CIS for central banks' reserves growth

Azerbaijan has become a leading country in the CIS region on the foreign exchange reserves growing of central banks, according to a report of the CIS Makromonitor of Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) on Monday.

"Reserve assets of central banks in the region enriched by $37.9 billion for the first half of 2011. The most significant increase in foreign exchange reserves was observed in Azerbaijan (26.6 percent of GDP) and Kazakhstan (6.9 percent)," the report says.

According to preliminary data, GDP growth in the region averaged 4.5 percent in January-September 2011. Makromonitore CIS also indicates that average consensus forecast for GDP growth in the CIS countries is 4.6 percent in 2012.

Distinctive of the third quarter has become a dynamic growth in agriculture by 14.7 percent compared to the level of 2010.

"Construction markets and financial system began to show signs of recovery. Faster growth in housing construction in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Moldova and Russia was recorded, while the annual growth of bank lending in the region has averaged 25.4 percent for the first nine months," the report says.

According to the Bank of Russia, remittances from Russia to CIS countries in dollar terms are by 39 percent higher for the first three quarters of 2011 than the figure for January-September 2010. Average inflation in the region, with the exception of Belarus, has declined from 11.4 percent in June to 7.1 percent in November 2011.


/Trend/