Media Review October 8, 2019

Azerbaijani-Russian trade and economic relations, the reasons for the growth of problem loans, and discussions around the legalization of gambling are the topics of today's media.

The newspaper Azerbaijan writes about the trade and economic relations between Russia and Azerbaijan, which are developing rapidly. About half of Russia's trade relations in the South Caucasus are in Azerbaijan.

Russia ranks first in the export of non-oil products. In particular, over the 8 months of this year, goods worth $ 427.1 million were exported from Azerbaijan to Russia, and goods worth $ 278.6 million were exported to Turkey. About 700 companies with Russian capital operate in Azerbaijan. Whereas Azerbaijan invested $ 1.2 billion in Russia, then Russia invested $ 4.6 billion in Azerbaijan. The commodity circulation between the countries in January-August of this year increased by 24%, and the volume of trade amounted to 2.5 billion dollars.

The Yeni Musavat newspaper writes about the growth of problem loans. As of September 1, the volume of problem loans in Azerbaijan amounted to 1 billion 491.3 million manats. Compared to August 1, this is 0.3% more.

Despite the restructuring, bad loans did not significantly decrease. Expert Natig Jafarli believes that to resolve this problem it is necessary to take measures related to business loans. The number of problematic business loans is not so much, but their volume is large, the expert notes. And when fines and interest are added to them, the volume of problem loans becomes even greater.

The website Sfera.az discusses the issue of legalizing gambling with expert Akif Nasirli, who believes that this can bring a lot of income and should be legalized.

In Georgia, for example, gambling is legalized, and the turnover of this business is $ 4.6 billion. The restoration of this business in Azerbaijan will expand the budget. -0----