Press Review 6 June 2018

The level of water supply in the country, the problems of the banking system, and the need to diversify the economy are the leading topics of today's press.

The newspaper Azerbaijan writes about the improvement of the water supply to the population, since this is one of the priority areas of social policy. At present, the number of customers provided with centralized drinking water supply is 1 million 410 thousand. In Baku, their number increased from 29% to 81.5%, and in the regions from 9% to 43.4%, and in comparison with 2004 - from 26% to 67.5%.

The newspaper Yeni Musavat continues to write about the banking system, being interested in ways of income of banks. According to statistics on May 1 this year, the amount of loans issued by banks is 11 billion 422.6 million manat. In comparison with March, this is 173 million manat more.

In April of this year, the volume of deposits of citizens was increased, amounting to 7 billion 813.5 million manat. However, lending as a whole has not yet reached the proper level, although this is the main way of income for banks.

The Novoye Vremya newspaper writes that the lack of reforms precludes the growth of the economy. The World Bank (WB) forecasts growth of the Azerbaijani economy by 2% this year and by 3-4% next year. Speaking about the level of inflation, it should be noted that this figure was 11% in 2016 and 7-8% in 2017, and this year it will be even lower.

Structural reforms are very important, and this is due to the diversification of the economy. However, no reforms are possible without investing in people. This includes education, but the amount of investment in this area is very low, despite the growth of oil prices. Teachers earn an average of 150-200 dollars a month, and doctors officially receive the same amount. At the same time, raising wages without structural changes is not an option. Thus, in order to diversify the economy, it is necessary to invest in structural reforms, and most importantly, in human capital.