JAN. 23 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s Central Bank issued a stern warning to its domestic banks to tighten up checks they carry out on consumers before issuing loans. The Azerbaijani economy is booming but increasingly unsecured loans could derail this growth.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 169, published on Jan. 29 2014)
JAN. 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Internet penetration hit 70% in Baku by the end of 2013, local media reported. Internet penetration is a decent benchmark of a country’s development although the hidden story behind the scale of the reach of the internet is whether it is restricted or heavily monitored. The authorities in Baku want internet penetration of 85%.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 169, published on Jan. 29 2014)
JAN. 24 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s Central Bank ordered domestic banks to stop giving out loans to consumers so easily.
In a strongly worded statement, Azerbaijan’s Central Bank said lenders had not been doing enough due diligence on the financial security of consumers they were lending cash to.
“The Central Bank has assigned banks to intensify activities on issue of loans and enhance control over the field in line with responsible lending principles with an eye to further amplify banking sector’s financial sustainability,” the Azerbaijani Central Bank said.
The Central Bank appears to be reacting to a number of warnings from analysts who said that poorly secured loans and rising consumer debt are major risks to Azerbaijan’s economy.
Azerbaijan’s fuel-powered economy has picked up pace again since stumbling during the global economic crisis of 2008/9. In 2014, the economy is expected to grow by around 5%.
But overconfidence and slack controls threatens this economic growth. The Central Bank’s own figures showed that lending to consumers increased by nearly a third last year.
The Central Bank also appears to accuse commercial banks of aggressively selling loans to consumers and also warned them not to give out misleading information over the financial responsibilities of taking out loans.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 169, published on Jan. 29 2014)
JAN. 24 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia met in Paris to continue their glacier-slow peace talks over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. In the region, though, reports said that there had been an increase in the number of shootouts between the two sides. Both sides reported casualties.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 169, published on Jan. 29 2014)
JAN. 22 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development approved a $200m loan to Russian energy company Lukoil for the development of the Shah Deniz gas field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea. Lukoil holds a 10% stake in Shah Deniz. The shareholders in Shah Deniz want to extend the lifespan of the field.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 169, published on Jan. 29 2014)
JAN. 23 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Former Georgian PM Bidzina Ivanishvili will set up a new NGO called Citizen, media reported. Although Mr Ivanishili stepped down as Georgia’s PM in October 2013, analysts have said that he will still play an active, behind-the-scenes role in Georgian politics. Citizen could become an important political tool.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 169, published on Jan. 29 2014)
JAN. 21 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said Azerbaijan’s economy would grow by between 3-4% in 2014, a drop from 5.8% in 2013. In a report, the EBRD said a pre-election government spending spree in August and September had distorted and boosted Azerbaijan’s growth rates last year.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 168, published on Jan. 22 2014)
JAN. 16 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan cut gas supplies to Russia, potentially inflaming relations between the two neighbours. SOCAR, Azerbaijan’s state-owned energy company, said it had suspended gas flowing along a pipeline to Russia because of construction work. Importantly it didn’t give an expected re-start date.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 168, published on Jan. 22 2014)
JAN. 15 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The consortium developing the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) invited applications to take part in a tender to build compressor, pressure and metering stations. Azerbaijan’s state energy company SOCAR and Turkey’s Botas and TPAO are developing TANAP which will pump gas from the Caspian Sea to the Turkish-Greek border.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 168, published on Jan. 22 2014)
JAN. 16 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — From April 1, cars that don’t conform to the EU’s Euro-4 level of emissions will be banned from being imported into Azerbaijan, Sabig Abdullayev, director of the Azerbaijan Standardisation and Certification Institute said.
This is important because it will change the shape of Azerbaijan’s car market.
Euro-4 is part of a grading scheme the EU created to measure the amount of emissions from cars. The EU introduced Euro-4 grade in 2005. A few years later carmakers in other countries introduced a similar emissions grade.
There is now a Euro-5 grade and later this year Euro-6 will be introduced.
By jumping from the current minimum Euro-2 standard to Euro-4, Azerbaijan is playing catch up. But it is only catching up for cars being imported. Cars made in Azerbaijan can still be produced legally at a worse emissions standard.
And there is also the small issue of the quality of fuel. Refineries in Azerbaijan only currently produce fuel to meet Euro-2 grade. This is being changed to hit Euro-3 but is still off the Euro-4 benchmark.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 168, published on Jan. 22 2014)