Press Review 06/22/2016

The Karabakh problem, the likelihood of new devaluation and the country's economic problems are the themes of today's leading media.

The official newspaper Azerbaijan, regarding the negotiations on the Karabakh issue, notes the advantages of Azerbaijan over Armenia, acquired during the April war. It is time to exert serious pressure on the occupier. Official Baku has provided another chance to Armenia and the mediators, the newspaper says.

Azadlig gives an economist opinion on the economic situation in the country. The expert notes that budget revenues have decreased by 43%. In this situation, only 13 billion AZN will come to the budget instead of 17-18 billion AZN. Thus, the already trimmed expenditure will further reduce.

Novoye Vremya has published an article titled Manat Again Heads for Decline. The dollar has been almost continuously growing in respect to the manat over the last four days. The Assistant to the President on Economic Reforms Natig Amirov says AZN is not impaired, but just gradually finds its fundamental value. "The negative impact of the processes in the global financial markets has made the devaluation of the manat necessary to preserve the competitiveness of the non-oil sector of the country," Amirov said.

They can continue to gut the Oil Fund, or to hope for an increase in oil prices. Only this is just a one way ticket. It is obvious that we need radical reforms in the tax and judicial systems, and total elimination of corruption. But the old way of thinking to carry out such reforms is impossible.

Bizim Yol also considers the fundamental value of the manat. The expert Natig Jafarli argues that the rate of AZN is set administratively by the Central Bank. The financial expert Jafar Ibrahimli says the Central Bank uses both administrative measures and the "floating rate". That is how they manage to keep the AZN rate.