11:13 - 2.12.2025

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December 2, Fineko/abc.az. Since the beginning of the year, the percentage dynamics in the banking sector of Azerbaijan has changed significantly - despite the weakening of deposit yields, the interest burden on loans continues to grow. As a result, banks' interest margins increased, and the sector demonstrated record profitability. Despite the regulator's warning, it seems that banks do not want to change this strategy yet.

ABC.AZ informs, referring to the Statistical Bulletin of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan, that in the first 11 months of 2025, the average interest rate on newly-attracted term deposits in manats showed a downward trend and fell to 6.70% in November. However, in December 2024, this figure was 8.71%.

The deposit rate in foreign currency, which was 3.19% in December, dropped to 2.76% by the beginning of November.

On the contrary, the average interest rates on loans given by banks have been growing for most of the year. While interest rates on loans in manats were 17.07% in December 2024, they rose to 18.72% in November. In the middle of the year, they rose to 19%.

Although the interest rates on loans in foreign currency also fluctuated, especially from March to April, and by the end of the year they were at 6.31%.

Thus, the credit and deposit gap (spread) in the national currency increased to 12.02 percent as of November 1, compared with 8.36 percent at the beginning of this year. This is significantly higher than the level of 8.22 percent at the beginning of last year.