Press Review 01/24/2017

Strengthening social protection, abuse of national independence, departure of construction companies from the market, and price increase are the leading topics of today's press.

The newspaper Azerbaijan writes that social protection remains a priority of the state. In this connection, the author recalls the relevant decrees and state program signed by Heydar Aliyev and the current President. He also writes about last year's 10% increase in pensions and benefits, and the rising level of the minimum monthly salary.

The website Azadliq.info writes about the abuse and looting of national wealth - not only material but also spiritual. The authorities shamelessly loot the country and explain the lack of success with the small period of independence, though in the same Georgia, with the same period of independence, successes and achievements are obvious. Abusing independence, the authorities have looted 140 billion petrodollars for 23 years and are working at an accelerated rate for the conversion of the country into hell, the author writes.

Echo has published an article about construction companies leaving the Azerbaijani real estate market due to the fall in purchasing power.

For this reason, the companies suspend the construction sites and freeze them.

Negative trends have been observed not only in the purchase and sale, but also in rental of housing.

Novoye Vremya writes about the rise in prices and inflation. Over the past year, prices for goods and services increased by 12.4%, including food products - by 14.7%, non-food products - by 16.7%, and services rendered to population – by 5.8%.

Prices of goods and services rose by 3% in December 2016 compared to November of the same year, food products - by 4.1%, nonfood goods - by 2.2%, and services to the population - by 2.4%. All these are data of official statistics,

However, independent sources speak of a much larger rise in prices, especially for food products, where prices rose by 20-30%.