Baku: The Central Bank of Azerbaijan will maintain its current interest rate in the upcoming monetary policy decisions, as reported by APA-Economics, citing information from ING Group, the largest financial group in the Netherlands.

According to Azeri-Press News Agency, the decision comes in light of prevailing inflation risks that leave the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) with limited options for reducing the interest rate. The report highlights that both global and domestic inflationary pressures, particularly escalating food prices and increases in tariffs, are significant factors preventing any monetary easing.

ING analysts have noted that since 2025, inflation in Azerbaijan has remained within the 5-6% range. An additional increase in inflation was observed at the beginning of 2026, attributed to changes in domestic utility tariffs. Moreover, a considerable portion of Azerbaijan's imports comes from regions affected by geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, thereby adding to the inflationary pressures.

The report further indicates that any future monetary easing would only be feasible if there is an unexpected decline in inflation. However, under the current circumstances, this scenario is not regarded as the baseline expectation.

The CBA is set to announce its next decision on the interest rate tomorrow, April 2. Previously, on February 4, the CBA reduced all parameters of the interest rate corridor by 0.25 percentage points, bringing the interest rate to 6.5%, the lower bound of the corridor to 5.5%, and the upper bound to 7.5%.