Press Review 13.10.17

The development of cotton growing, problems with issuing loans by banks, and the reasons for the decline in oil production in Azerbaijan are the leading topics of today"s press.

The newspaper Azerbaijan writes about the development of cotton growing in the country. The author tells about his meeting with a cotton grower of the village of Alvand of the Zardab district, Sura Miralieva. Despite the fact that this autumn showed its stern face early, cotton growers harvest at least 120-130 kg of cotton daily. This year from each hectare it is planned to harvest 30-32 quintals of cotton.

The newspaper Echo published an article on abuses in banks that issue loans outside the legal field. The Central Bank of Azerbaijan claims that the average interest rate on loans for individuals in foreign currency is 16.25%, and the same index in AZN is 16.10%. In reality, it is simply impossible to obtain a loan at these rates.

The Financial Markets Supervision Authority (FIMSA) banned banks from issuing loans in foreign currency. In addition, FIMSA tightened the requirements for lending, and this is the right decision. Banks took a responsible approach to assessing the financial position of their client.

As for the national currency, the Central Bank issues AZN loans to banks at 15%, that is the current discount rate of the Central Bank. Will commercial banks, taking a loan at 15%, start issuing money almost at the same rate?

The newspaper Novoye Vremya writes about the situation in the oil and gas sector, where the decline in oil production has reached 8%. Decrease in GDP in the oil sector is the indicator of common problems with the extraction of "black gold". SOCAR does not inform for what reasons there is a reduction in production. As it seems, if this were somehow connected with the OPEC + decision to reduce oil production, then this would have been announced. Apparently, the decline in oil production is due to other factors unknown to common people.