Press Review 05/11/2016

Army building in Azerbaijan, falling exchange rate of manat, the level of poverty in the country, and the situation in the banking sector are the leading topics of today's press.

The Azerbaijan newspaper writes about the beginning of military exercises, which involved over 60 thousand personnel, more than 50 tanks and military equipment, as well as missiles and artillery. The author cites the opinion of the international military experts that the Azerbaijani army is the strongest in the South Caucasus.

The website Azadliq.info writes about the dollar's sharp rise in price in recent years. Experts believe that the manat rate has not yet bottomed out.

Echo published an article entitled Independent Evaluation: Poverty Level in Azerbaijan 20% Rather than 5%. In Azerbaijan the poverty line is a relative concept, because in the legislation there is no clear concept of need criterion. Currently, the poverty line is calculated on the value of the minimum consumer basket, which should be reviewed, since it does not correspond to reality. The subsistence minimum in Azerbaijan for 2016 was set at 136 manat, for able-bodied population - 146, for pensioners - 115 and for children - 117. According to official statistics, the poverty rate is just 5%. But, according to independent experts, the level of poverty in Azerbaijan at the moment is about 20%. The poverty rate increase was due to the unfavorable economic situation in the country.

Novoye Vremya has published an article about the activities of the Financial Markets Supervision House, which warns the banks against currency speculation.