Assessing the Impact of COVID-19 on Digital Payments in Azerbaijan

Abstract

The COVID19 pandemic, which has lasted for more than a year, has had a significant impact on the economies of the world's countries and economic relations between them. One of the most specific features of the pandemic is the minimization of physical contact and the establishment of relationships at a distance. In such circumstances, we considered it expedient to analyze the impact of the pandemic on digital payments in the Republic of Azerbaijan. As it is known, digital payments are mainly carried out remotely in electronic form, in this regard, the pandemic creates favorable conditions for expanding the use of digital payments, but on the one hand leads to the contraction of the economy. That is why the article first analyzes the current situation and infrastructure opportunities for digital payments in Azerbaijan, and examines the situation in the ecosystem in this regard. Also, payment card transactions before and after the pandemic period, noncash payments, e-commerce transactions, transactions through exchange systems and e-banking services, and key macroeconomic indicators were compared. However, it was defined whether the pandemic will affect digital payments. At the same time, the impact of the pandemic on digital payments in international practice has been studied and the situation in several countries has been studied. In the end, the results obtained on the basis of the analysis are presented in the conclusion section of the article.