Over the year amid deeper global economic crisis the Azerbaijani economy continued to grow dynamically, maintaining two-digit growth rates. The foreign exchange position further improved and surplus of the foreign exchange balance reached $15 B. Inflation began falling. On this backdrop, to preventively neutralize external risk factors the National Bank continues preventive monetary policy actions, which pave the way to high banking system liquidity and high asset quality meanwhile contributing to financial stability. Maintaining a reasonable level of banking system liquidity provides ongoing lending by banks, being the key in preserving the dynamics of non-oil economic growth. As the next relevant step, the Management Board of the National Bank decided to shift the refinancing rate to 8% from 10%, and the ceiling of the interest rate corridor to 13% from 15% from 1 December 2008. The Board also decided to reduce the reserve requirement for banks’ liabilities both in manat and foreign currency to 6% from 9%. The National Bank will further continue task-oriented measures to maintain financial stability in the banking system.