Press Review 24 November 2017

Assessment of the country's energy reserves, new customs duties, and the overall economic situation in the country are the leading topics of today's press.

The newspaper Azerbaijan estimates the gas reserves of the Shah Deniz field. The author takes the reader into an excursion to the Shah Deniz-1 deposit, analyzing the extraction of gas and condensate. Then he approaches the current realities of the Shah Deniz-2 field, focusing on the South Gas Corridor project.

The newspaper Echo published an article titled Starving Groups of Azerbaijani Population and New Customs Duties. Since 2018, Azerbaijan will switch to a new system of customs duties. This is stipulated by the Nomenclature of Foreign Economic Activity, Customs Rates for Import and Export approved by the Cabinet of Ministers.

The country is not yet ready to provide the population with the necessary food products, and therefore everything is mainly imported, and against this background, the increase in customs duties will exacerbate the already difficult economic situation in the country.

Many segments of the population simply starve, feeding on cheap pasta. Even butter cannot be afforded by many people in Azerbaijan due to its expensiveness now.

The Novoye Vremya newspaper published an article titled Optimistic Central Bank. The author sneers at the statements of the head of the Central Bank against the backdrop of devaluation, ongoing inflation and rising prices. Thus, with the GDP falling by 1% and inflation of 13.7% the Central Bank chief talks about "positive macroeconomic processes". The same goes for the forecasts regarding the stability of the national currency. So, Rustamov's assurances about the stability of the manat traditionally cause distrust.--0--