By Azernews

By Leman Mammadova

Growing inflow of tourists coming to Azerbaijan contributes to the development of "non-cash" economy in the country as well as boosts revenues.

In January-February, 364,200 foreigners and stateless persons from 152 countries visited Azerbaijan, which is 3.3 percent more than in January-February of last year.

According to the export review of the Center for Analysis of Economic Reforms and Communications of Azerbaijan, the value of foreign currency transactions by bank cards in the two months amounted to 173.6 million manats ($102.15 million).

The amount of transactions in February amounted to 85.3 million manats ($50.19 million).

In recent years, the volume of non-cash payments in Azerbaijan increased by 70 percent due to the development of tourism.

Last year, foreign citizens spent 1.278 billion manats ($0.75 billion) in Azerbaijan via bank cards, which is 25 percent, or 256 million manats ($151 million) more than in 2017.

In total, in 2018, Azerbaijan was visited by 2.849 million foreign citizens and stateless persons from 196 countries, which is 5.7 percent more than in 2017.

Movement towards a “non-cash economy” is officially one of the priorities of financial regulators in a number of countries, both developed and developing.

The development of a cashless environment is something for which financiers and the state are fighting for understandable reasons. The velocity of circulation of cash is lower than that of electronic ones, the cash flow is less transparent, and therefore more adapted to the shadow economy. 

According to the state program on the expansion of digital payments in 2018-2020, the annual volume of non-cash payments in Azerbaijan will reach about 17 billion manats ($10 billion) by 2021.

In general, volume of non-cash payments through Azerbaijan’s national payment system reached 274 billion manats ($161.22 billion) in 2018, which is 32 percent more compared to the figures from the previous year.

The share of cash payments made up 52 percent, which is 8 percentage points less than the figure for 2017.

International experts believe that the full use of non-cash settlements in Baku will lead to an increase of $1.9 billion in revenues, including business income – by $1.4 billion, government’s revenues – by $400 million, consumers’ income – by $100 million.