‘Black market’ currency traders arrested by police in Baku

Five individuals, engaged in foreign exchange trading in the territory of Baku railway station, have been arrested in course of the police raid on February 15 – Azerbaijani Interior Ministry press service reported.

Police raided the foreign exchange ‘black market’ upon studying the video materials that had been released on social media and Internet-resources. The arrestees were engaged in illegal currency exchange, as well as obstructed free movement of citizens in the territory of the railway station, reads the report.

• The Board of the Central Bank of the Republic of Azerbaijan decided on December 21, 2015, to adopt floating Manat rate. To sum up, as of today, the Manat has depreciated by more than 99% throughout the two stages of devaluation.

• All currency exchange offices were closed in Baku after the second wave of the Manat devaluation, in summer 2016. The banks limited the sale of foreign exchange (from US$100 to US$500 a day per person). People had queued up long before the banks were opened and the banks ran out of foreign exchange reserves by noon. All the aforesaid contributed to the flourishing of  the ‘black market’, where foreign exchange was sold at the rate considerably higher than the official one.