ING: Azerbaijan to accelerate tightening of monetary policy

The Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) is set to increase the discount rate by 0.25 percentage points to 7.5% at its upcoming Board meeting on March 12, according to the Dutch company ING Group, Report informs.

ING Group forecasts that the CBA will maintain the 7.5% discount rate until the third quarter of 2026. At that point, the rate is projected to rise to 7.75%, followed by an increase to 8% in the fourth quarter of 2026.

Previously, ING had anticipated that the monetary policy tightening would start in the third quarter of 2026, with the discount rate climbing to 7.5%, and then to 7.75% in the fourth quarter.

On January 22, 2025, the CBA kept the discount rate steady at 7.25%.