Press Review 02/08/2017

Evaluation of Islamic solidarity, the reasons for the manat value rise, the situation in the banking sector, and the rise in unemployment are the leading topics of today's press.

The newspaper Azerbaijan writes about the conciliatory mission of Ilham Aliyev. The author calls Azerbaijan an island of tolerance and stability, while other countries, Arab in particular, are destroyed under the guise of democracy and human rights.

The author calls the announcement of 2017 a year of Islamic Solidarity a result of far-sighted policies and cites the Islamic Games to be held in Baku this year.

The website Azadliq.info talks about the root causes of the AZN value rise. The expert Samir Aliyev says there is no reason for that, since the dollar flow into the country has not increased, imports have not decreased, and foreign exchange reserves have not increased, as well as the amount of dollars to be auctioned.

Dollars today come to the country only through the Oil Fund. It is possible that the strengthening of the manat is due to the repayment of foreign debts, which have to be repaid this year.

The weakening of AZN complicates the return of debts that can be the cause of its temporary strengthening.

Echo has published a material about the banks closing. At the end of the fourth quarter of 2016, 15 banks did not publish financial statements. From the experience of last year, it is clear they are on the verge of bankruptcy. Thus, part of the 32 banks will be closed.

The Financial Markets Supervision House of Azerbaijan has presented a report which indicates that the total losses of the banking sector last year amounted to 1 billion 667.6 million manats.

Novoye Vremya writes about the growth of unemployment in the country due to the ongoing crisis, the drop in GDP, the falling exchange rate of the manat, and the rising inflation and unemployment. Many foreign firms and companies, where a large number of citizens were employed, have stopped work.  –0--