President Ilham Aliyev said Azerbaijan will maintain the exchange rate of 1.7 manats per U.S. dollar, giving the clearest public signal yet that the country intends to preserve the currency level in place since 2017.
Aliyev made the statement in remarks published after the Second Azerbaijan International Investment Forum in Baku. He linked the manat’s stability to Azerbaijan’s positive trade balance, low external public debt and foreign-exchange reserves.
Speaking about the dollar-manat rate, Aliyev said the current policy would continue. Azerbaijan’s 2027 budget forecasts had already used an exchange rate of 1 dollar to 1.7 manats, but the president’s statement provided a direct public confirmation of that benchmark.
Debt at 5.6% of GDP
Aliyev said Azerbaijan’s external public debt stands at 5.6% of gross domestic product and that the country’s foreign-exchange reserves are nearly 20 times larger than the debt. He added that Azerbaijan could repay its external obligations in a single day if necessary.
The 1.7-manat rate has broad implications for import prices, business contracts, foreign-currency deposits and loans. The Central Bank of Azerbaijan remains responsible for publishing the official exchange rate for individual dates.
The currency pledge was part of the same forum address in which Aliyev set a target of increasing annual transit freight to at least 25 million metric tons by 2030 and identified energy, logistics, mining and artificial intelligence as priority investment sectors.
Sources: Vesti Baku; Office of the President of Azerbaijan. For background, Aliyev also cited the unchanged 1.7-manat rate in an April 2026 business forum speech.