Country with non-free economy cannot gain welfare

At a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers on the results of socioeconomic development in the first nine months of 2014 and the upcoming challenges the Head of State announced growth in the figures of welfare. He said that the implemented infrastructure projects in the economy were invested $ 19 billion, of which $ 11 billion was domestic investment. GDP grew by 2.5% and non-oil sector - by 6%. He especially stressed almost fourfold ratio of growth of monetary income of the population - 5.4% and inflation - 1.5%.

For comments, Turan’s correspondent asked the founder of the Center for Economic Research Gubad Ibadoglu. According to this Doctors of Science, in order to assess the rate of growth, it is necessary to assess the degree of freedom of enterprise, - otherwise the economy refers to the unfree and develops at the whim of officials. According to him, one of the indicators is the recently published Global Competitiveness Index 2014-2015, where Azerbaijan has taken a decent 38^th place among 144 countries.

This is achieved primarily through unreal inflation, where it took the 1^st place and the level of macroeconomic stability (9^th place). The country by the number of procedures required for business registration took the 10^th place, and on the requirements for registration of business terms – 36^th place. In this case, none of the experts of the World Economic Forum is interested in the survival rate of the established commercial structures. On labor market efficiency the country is at the 33^rd place, which is related to electronic services. They also linked the relatively high place in the structure of railway and air transport.

Talking about the real state of affairs, the economist touched that on the level of GDP Azerbaijan is located in the 70^th stage, on business support – 80^th place, infrastructure development – 70th, higher education – 90th, medical and primary education - 104th, and on the development of the financial market – 89^th.

The Head of State said about infrastructure projects, where the investment is made in the Ministry of Transport, but on the quality of roads Azerbaijan ranks 69th. In addition, there is low transparency of government policies (48th position), not to mention the tax efficiency – 82nd, and on the effectiveness of antitrust policy - 130th line. With these figures and the presence of dominance of officials - monopolists whose decisions affect the level of the real economy and the lives of the poor and the middle class, it makes no sense to boast with ratings, he concluded. --17D-