Press Review - 28 May 2018

The development of entrepreneurship in the country, the uselessness of credit bureaus, and the growth of external debt are the leading topics of today's press.

The Azerbaijan newspaper writes that the development of entrepreneurship has reached a qualitatively new level, since all conditions have been created for this on the state level.

The incomes of the population from entrepreneurial activity increased 10.4 times. From 2003 to 2017, the number of business entities increased by 4.2 times, the number of legal entities increased by 1.9 times, the number of small businesses doubled, and the number of private entrepreneurs increased fivefold.

The Echo newspaper writes that Azerbaijan is increasing its national debt. On the one hand, there is nothing wrong with the fact that the government continues to take out loans for the implementation of projects in Azerbaijan. On the other hand, the national debt is growing, and this cannot but worry. There is no other way to finance Azerbaijan's obligations to external creditors than through the implementation of major projects. An example is the Southern Gas Corridor project.

In general, the public debt is incorrectly defined. Only four years ago, the officially announced national debt by the ratio to GDP was only 8%, and today this figure is 22%. But the government considers only the already used loans. But in addition to these funds, there are signed loan agreements, and the Azerbaijani government has received these funds, but has not yet used them for their intended purpose.

The Novoye Vremya newspaper writes that the credit bureau does not raise confidence in banks. Initially, LLC Azerbaijan Credit Bureau was called the salvation of the banking system, with plenty of positive expectations. In fact, this has not yielded any significant results.