AKIPRESS.COM - Azerbaijan’s central bank abandoned its dollar peg on Monday and allowed its currency to tumble by almost a third, the latest sign of how the oil price fall is hurting energy-dependent economies.

The manat was quoted by the central bank at 1.55 to the US dollar on Monday morning, 32.3 per cent weaker than on Friday night and half its value in January, putting it on track to be the world’s worst-performing currency this year.

The Azerbaijani central bank said in a statement on Monday that as a result of “intensifying external economic shocks” it had switched to a “floating” exchange rate regime for the manat. Azerbaijan’s move on Monday — its second major devaluation of its currency this year — echoed Kazakhstan’s move to a free float of its currency in August, triggering a more than 40 per cent fall over the subsequent four months.