Demand for dollars has spiked in Azerbaijan amid fears of another currency devaluation following a plunge in oil prices. A feud between Saudi Arabia and Russia led to a sharp drop in oil prices on March 9 and they have remained low, finishing the week at under $34. Azerbaijan’s economy is highly dependent on oil and gas revenues , and its current state budget is based on an oil price of $53. The government maintains a de facto peg of the currency, the manat, against the US dollar, and can prop up its budget in times of low international oil prices by devaluing the manat. It did so twice in 2015, creating substantial hardship for ordinary Azerbaijanis who held their savings in manats. With those memories in mind, many Azerbaijanis were seeking to trade their manats for more reliable dollars in anticipation of another potential devaluation. Some banks responded […]