Press Review December 18, 2017

The disparity of pensions with real life, the losses of villagers in connection with the collection of cotton, and the propaganda of economic reforms are the leading topics of today's press.

The newspaper Novoye Vremya published an article titled When Will Decent Pensions Appear in Azerbaijan? There are more than 1.3 million pensioners in Azerbaijan. And although pension reforms have been going on for more than 10 years, cardinal changes in the standard of living of most elderly people are not visible. In 2018, the average pension in Azerbaijan will be 216.5 manats compared to 208.9 manats in 2017, that is, growth will be 3.6 percent. At the end of 2018, the total number of pensioners in Azerbaijan is projected to be 1,304,100 people, compared to 1,315,000 people at the end of 2017.

The website Azadliq.info writes that cotton farmers end the year with losses. Their total loss amounted to 12,277,170 manats, the author writes with reference to the expert. According to information on December 15, from 202,413 ha, 202,012 tons of cotton was harvested. This year, less than 250 kg of cotton was collected from each ha. The purchase of high-quality cotton is carried out at 50 gapiks per 1 kg. In Iran and Turkey, cotton is three times more expensive.

The newspaper Azerbaijan writes about public discussions on the economic reforms that took place in Mingachevir with the participation of 300 entrepreneurs from Yevlakh, Agjabadi, Barda, Agdash, Goychay, Kurdamir, Ujar and Zardab. The author assesses the economic reforms of their role in the development of regions. In 2016-2017 years about 150 events related to reforms aimed at improving the system of taxes, customs, the banking sector, business conditions, etc. were implemented. -0-