Media Review - 03/08/19

The role and activities of women in society, the stability policy of the manat, the possibility of restoring benefits for children, and others are the leading themes of today's media.

The newspaper Azerbaijan in the article "The positions of Azerbaijani women in society are worthy and durable," tells about the traditional respectful role of women in society in Azerbaijan.

As early as the beginning of the 20th century, in the People"s Republic of Azerbaijan (1918 - 1920) women were given the right to vote.

Referring to the modern period, the author notes that one of the clearest examples of women's activity in society is the activity of the First Vice-President of Azerbaijan, Mehriban Aliyeva.

The article as a whole positively assesses the policy of the state, ensuring the strength of women's positions in society.

The newspaper Novoye Vremya in the article "Where is inflation lurking?" touches upon monetary policy.

The Central Bank of Azerbaijan has made a statement that it plans to intensify work on creating an alternative anchor for monetary policy as part of the transition to a targeted inflation regime, the article says.

This tool can be represented by short-term interest in the interbank market, including the activation of the money market and the deepening of the securities market, the Central Bank said in a statement about the main directions of monetary policy for the next year and for the medium term.

Simply put, the said construction is intended, according to the financial regulator, to contribute to the retention of price increases. But here another key point attracts attention. As acknowledged by the country's most important bank, the low level of inflation last year was caused by the stability of the manat, but the Central Bank does not give any predictions about the future rate of our monetary unit. For it cannot do this due to objective circumstances caused by the unpredictability of the situation on the global hydrocarbon markets.

Economist Rovshan Agayev believes that if the price of oil falls below $ 55 per barrel, it will be impossible to keep the manat rate against the dollar. Economist Natig Jafarli expects in this regard a "slight" devaluation at the level of about 1.92 manat per US dollar, being sure that the authorities are unlikely to decide to drop the Azerbaijani currency strongly.

The economists consider the Central Bank"s inflation forecasts at 4% this year to be far from reality, since not only purely monetary factors will contribute to price increases. According to the experts, the edited version of the Tax Code, which entered into force in January of this year, promises to increase the tax burden on business, and the business community will react with price increases.

The newspaper Yeni Musavat in the article "Child benefits should be restored" cites the opinion of MP Ali Masimli, who considers the restoration of cash benefits for a child born before he reaches a certain age. This practice was in the 1990s - early 2000s.

He believes that with the income of a significant part of the population at 25-400 manat per month, families do not have sufficient funds to ensure children at the proper level. The lack of funds leads to the fact that they cannot normally grow physically and mentally, or have a healthy diet. This creates a threat to the gene pool. -0-