President Acknowledges Obvious Recession in First Quarter

On April 9, under the chairmanship of the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers was held on the results of socioeconomic development in the first quarter 2016 and the upcoming challenges.

Usually the head of state in the economic unit operates figures, but this time he was limited to the statement that "economic indicators of the first quarter were not very positive, and the gross domestic product decreased, which is natural and expected."

The non-oil sector grew by more than 5%, which, according to him, shows that the decline in GDP is primarily due to the fall in oil prices and thye situation arising in connection with this, the reduction of income and public investment by the state.

In the first quarter, according to the President, 37 thousand jobs were created, most of which are in the public sector, including 31 thousand permanent ones. 13 thousand jobs closed, mainly in private institutions (in construction and other sectors where the work has been postponed).

"Despite the drop in oil prices by 3-4 times, wages and pensions this year increased by 10%," the President said, but he did not realize that the manat dipped to the US dollar by 100% during the year, i.e. in absolute terms the purchasing power of those same pensioners decreased by 90%. --17D-