Press Review 07/12/2016

The place and role of Azerbaijan in the South Caucasus, the difficult economic situation of the country, the low level of the subsistence minimum, and the risk of corruption in the liquidation of banks are the leading themes of the press.

The Azerbaijan newspaper writes about the role of Azerbaijan in the South Caucasus, claiming that the President Ilham Aliyev in a short time turned Azerbaijan into an authoritative state, and recalls major international events conducted by the country.

The website Azadliq.info criticizes the speech of the Central Bank’s Director Elman Rustamov in parliament for his phrase "we have felt the crisis that began in 2008 only now."

The author advises Rustamov to consider the reasons for reducing the budget from 25 billion manat to 9.6 billion manat. Further, the author cites figures confirming the deterioration of the financial situation in the country, citing the example of bad loans.

Echo writes that the contents of the consumer basket is not published in Azerbaijan, because its contents are not "fit" in the size of the minimum consumption, which in the next year will grow to 155 manats.

Today, in view of the crisis and rising prices of food and manufactured goods it is important to bring the "criterion of need" to 200 manat, and the cost of living - up to 500 manats. To survive and live a normal life, a man needs AZN 500 per month to pay for utilities, eat normally and afford to buy the necessary medicines.

The newspaper Yeni Musavat writes that the process of eliminating banks is non-transparent. The expert Akram Hasanov says currently more than 10 banks are in the process of liquidation. The liquidator is the Deposit Insurance Fund. However, by law, the liquidator may not be a legal entity. The expert also applies to the question of probability of corruption in the process of liquidation of banks.