Press Review - 10/08/2016

The focus of Saturday's press is on the meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers under the chairmanship of President Ilham Aliyev, calls for restrictions on the Internet, credit debt problems of the population, the preservation of the country's economic dependence on oil, and others.

The newspaper Azerbaijan devoted extensive space to the government meeting chaired by President Ilham Aliyev. Although the meeting was devoted to the issues of the economy, Aliyev lashed out at the United States and Europe. In particular, Aliyev criticized Europe for the crisis with migrants, “Islamophobia”, and activation of the ultra-right.

According to him, against the backdrop of global turmoil, Azerbaijan continues to develop successfully. Aliyev criticized US Secretary of State John Kerry for the equation of the responsibility of Armenia and Azerbaijan over the unresolved Karabakh conflict.

The website of the opposition newspaper Azadlig, which is not published due to financial problems, refers to the calls by pro-government politicians to impose a ban on a number of Internet resources (Sancaq, Meydan TV) for criticizing the head of state. The author of the publication believes the authorities are looking for an excuse to crack down on free media despite the existence of a huge number of problems in Azerbaijan. “They want no one to write about election fraud, bureaucratic arbitrariness, lawlessness, and corruption,” says the site

The author notes that social media are a mirror of the country, which transparently shows the incapacity of the government. The mirror can be broken, but this will not improve the ugly view. Instead of waging a war against social networks, it is necessary to stop the war against the people, the author writes.

The news that the Azerbaijani Parliament will discuss the bill "On Credit Debt" during the fall session has excited the population, especially those mired deep in loans, Echo writes. The expert Akram Hasanov believes the problem has the most appropriate way to solve.

“Most of the bad loans have been artificially created by the same banks. Managers and owners of banks have issued loans to "their people", e.g. friends, relatives and friendly companies. At the same time, these loans, as a rule, were not returned, and the malicious defaulters continued to exist quietly, as no fight was ever fought with them. Therefore, I believe the state should control the banks’ contracts of the sort," he said.

Once such cases are identified, it is important to deprive the bank from the license by the court. Then the bank should be passed to an interim administration that will make these people return the debts. Thus, the bank for a short time will begin to blossom. Today, therefore, it is very important to improve the banking supervision. Next, the state will require the bank to provide real benefits to debtors who are genuinely unable to pay the loan taken, Hasanov said. He also proposes the establishment of the Financial Ombudsman institution.

Novoye Vremya in the article "New Hope for Oil" draws attention to the fact that despite all the efforts of the Government and the Central Bank it is impossible to prevent the foreign exchange reserves from falling at the low oil prices.

The foreign exchange reserves of the Central Bank have decreased. Increase in the efficiency of the Central Bank’s performance will not only save the reserves at the proper level, but also significantly increase them. However, the officials (not only of the Central Bank) think about efficiency least of all. It seems that once again all expectations are connected with oil.

If the world market oil prices remain above $ 40 per barrel, in 2017 the currency reserves will increase, according to the Central Bank of Azerbaijan.

If the price of 40 dollars a barrel is already regarded almost as a salvation for the economy, it is obvious that the financial situation in the country leaves much to be desired. But the concern is that somehow the oil price is considered as a tool to replenish the state budget and the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan. -0-