NOV. 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s exports totalled $24.4b in the nine months to the end of September, media reported quoting the state statistics agency, but only $1.2b of this figure came in non-energy products. The figure highlights just how dependent Azerbaijan is on energy exports.
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(News report from Issue No. 208, published on Nov.12 2014)
NOV. 25 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – During a visit to Sweden by Armenian foreign minister Edward Nalbandalian, Armenia opened an embassy in Stockholm. Armenia has been looking to open more embassies abroad to both boost its support base and lobby for allies to back it with its dispute with Azerbaijan over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
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(News report from Issue No. 210, published on Nov. 26 2014)
NOV. 4 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s economy is, in general, holding firm despite problems in Russia and falling price of oil. That said, a growing household debt problem is threatening to undermine its relatively good position.
The Central Bank said that in the nine months to the end of September, consumers’ overdue loans had risen by over 22%.
Azerbaijanis are enjoying increasingly easy access to cash, something that international institutions and economists have told the Azerbaijani authorities to tighten up.
Lending but not the checks and balances needed for a sensible lending policy, have grown exponentially over the past two or three years.
In an article for the news site Media forum, the economist Samir Aliyev said that these disparages could cause serious problems for Azerbaijan.
“The share of these (consumer) loans increased by 16.7% in the last nine months,” he said of bank’s loan portfolio. “There has also been a decrease in the assets of the bank.”
This is a bad combination. Azerbaijani banks have been warned time and again to impose tighter controls over lending. If they don’t, the banks may find that they are holding a large proportion of bad consumer debt.
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(News report from Issue No. 207, published on Nov. 5 2014)
OCT. 31 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – BP said it would shut down one of Azerbaijan’s biggest oil fields — Central Azeri — for the whole of November for essential repair work. The shutdown will hit Azerbaijan’s oil output which is already under pressure.
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(News report from Issue No. 207, published on Nov. 5 2014)
OCT. 28 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s government, already under fire for cracking down on human rights, will allow its police force to carry stun guns. Police will be able to use the stun guns to make arrests and in crowd control scenarios. The decision is likely to draw more criticism.
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(News report from Issue No. 207, published on Nov. 5 2014)
OCT. 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in Azerbaijan sentenced Khalid Garayev, a talk show host, to 25 days in detention for alleged hooliganism, media reported. Garayev said the charges were politically motivated. EU and US media lobbyists have accused Azerbaijan of cracking down on media that the authorities dislike.
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(News report from Issue No. 207, published on Nov. 5 2014)
OCT. 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijani media has refuted a suggestion by Kazakh deputy energy minister Uzakbay Karabalin that it will be able to supply Kazakhstan with enough fuel to make up for its on-going shortfall. Kazakhstan is looking for options to make up for the shortfall, which is frustrating ordinary people.
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(News report from Issue No. 207, published on Nov. 5 2014)
OCT. 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s president, Serzh Sargsyan, described talks with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh as “constructive, useful and sincere”, media reported.This is the most upbeat assessment of the talks hosted by French president Francois Hollande.
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(News report from Issue No. 206, published on Oct. 29 2014)
OCT. 28 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s oil production will drop by 2.5% next year because of the continued slump in output from BP’s Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) oil fields, Reuters reported quoting a source close to the government. ACG is currently Azerbaijan’s largest oil producing field. BP has promised to maintain output but without success.
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(News report from Issue No. 206, published on Oct. 29 2014)
OCT. 23 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Eager to burnish its image in Washington DC, Azerbaijan has signed a $15,000/month deal with US lobbying firm Mair Strategies, the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. Azerbaijan is well-known for paying lobbyists in the United States and Europe to bolster its standards.
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(News report from Issue No. 206, published on Oct. 29 2014)