Central Bank of Azerbaijan keeps refinancing rate at 6.5%

BAKU. April 2 (Interfax) - The Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) decided to keep the refinancing rate at 6.5% at a meeting on Thursday, the CBA said in a press release.

The lower bound of the interest rate corridor was kept at 5.5%, and the upper bound at 7.5%, the bank said.

This decision takes effect on April 3.

The decision was made taking into account inflation forecasts, the bank said, with inflation remaining within the established corridor of 4% plus or minus 2 percentage points. Risks arising from growing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, the current situation in global and domestic financial markets, domestic macroeconomic trends, and the specific aspects of the transmission of monetary policy decisions to the real sector of the economy were also taken into account.

As reported, at the first meeting of 2026 on the refinancing rate on February 4, the Central Bank decided to cut it by 25 basis points (bps) to 6.5%.

The Central Bank of Azerbaijan held eight meetings on the refinancing rate in 2025. It decided to keep the rate unchanged at six of these meetings, and at two of them it cut it by 25 bps each time. This includes a decision in December 2025 to cut the rate from 7% to 6.75%.