Press Review - 19 January 2018

Azerbaijan, as an investor country, the prospects of the country's banking system in 2018, and the discrepancy of official data on unemployment with the real situation are the leading topics of today's press.

The newspaper Azerbaijan writes that the oil contracts signed in 1994 became a bridge for the country's integration into the world economy.

The author tells about the major projects, of which Azerbaijan became a participant. This is Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum and Turkey's oil refinery Star with an annual capacity of 10 million tons. This is the Black Sea terminal in Georgia.

Azerbaijan found its place in the markets for retail sales of oil products in Sweden, Romania and Ukraine.

The website Azadliq.info writes about the discrepancy between the official statistics and the real situation. The material entitled 417 Thousand False Jobs states 53.7 thousand people lost their jobs in the first 11 months of the past year.

Over the past two years, the number of the unemployed has increased by 227.4 thousand people. However, the government continues to maintain that their number is 250,000. Further in the article more detailed data are given on the number of unemployed and about how the actual figures differ from the official data.

The newspaper Yeni Musavat writes about the situation with banks, noting that their closure is not a way out. The perspectives of the banking system are discussed by experts and deputies. The author reminds that in 2016 13 banks were closed, and it is expected that several more banks will be closed this year.

Distressed loans have reached almost 2 billion manat, accounting for 15% of the total loan portfolio. The capital of almost 5 banks is below 50 million manat, which is one of the factors for their closure.

Today, the market in Azerbaijan is divided between five banks: International Bank of Azerbaijan, Pasha Bank, Capital Bank, Khalg Bank and Azerbaijan Senaye Bank. The assets of these banks account for 80% of all assets of the banking market.