Oktay Asadov: We Save Money for War

The central issue of today's meeting of the Parliament was the financial crisis that broke out after the devaluation of the manat.

MP Igbal Aghazadeh demanded that the government of Azerbaijan should compensate for damage caused to citizens as a result of the depreciation of the national currency by 34%.

 The Central Bank of Azerbaijan on December 30, 2014 stated that the value of the national currency will not fall, and after less than two months it deceived the country's population, he said.

The Antimonopoly Service of the Ministry of Economy and Industry said on artificially high prices by speculators. As a result of the devaluation bank depositors were damaged at 3 billion manat, despite the fact that the total amount of deposits of the population is 7.2 billion manat.

"I demand the government should offset the damage to the population in all areas, including indexation of wages and social protection for vulnerable people," said Aghazadeh.

In response, the Speaker of the Milli Mejlis Oktay Asadov said that within two months the country's citizens was able to convert their savings, "and during this period there has been converted $ 4.5 billion."

"The government kept the manat as much as it could. However, Azerbaijan is at war with Armenia and does not exclude the possibility of launching active military and other actions that may require additional funds. It is necessary to think about the future, we can not spend all of today reserves," said the speaker.

 "As far as I know, 70% of food production is domestic production and higher prices should not be applied. The Ministry of Economy and Industry is developing a plan to keep prices on the background of the devaluation of the manat," said Asadov.

The MP Ziyad Samedzade said that the devaluation of the manat was "a necessary step", given that the price of oil in the state budget in 2015 is laid at $ 90.

"Now oil prices do not exceed $ 60. If it continues, by the end of the year the budget deficit will amount to 7.6 billion manat. CBA annually spent 2-2.5 billion manat for retention of the national currency. However, permanent measures could lead to depletion of the reserves," said Samedzade.

MP Vahid Akhmedov blamed the central bank for the situation. "Until the last days the CBA promised that the dollar rate would not exceed 0.9 manat. But it immediately reduced the cost by 34%.

I believe that the government should take urgent anti-crisis measures to prevent the growth of prices, which has now become the most serious problem, Akhmedov said. -02D-