Tag Archives: Azerbaijan

Editorial: Emergency loan for Azerbaijan

JAN. 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The IMF’s arrival in Baku is a game-changer. For the Azerbaijani government to invite the IMF to Baku means that their economy is in a more perilous position then they had been letting on.

The manat has lost 35% of its value over the past month; demonstrations have stirred in regional cities; inflation is rising; jobs are disappearing.

We know all this but we’ve also been told that the Azerbaijani government has, officially at least, saved up around $35b in its sovereign wealth fund for exactly this sort of scenario.

Why then, would Azerbaijan invite the IMF to Baku to discuss a loan? The impression that the IMF’s arrival in Baku had created is that things in Azerbaijan are worse than they have been letting on. Perhaps the authorities haven’t really saved up $35b. Perhaps they don’t have access to all the $35b.

What is known is that IMF are in town until the end of next week and that Azerbaijan’s finances, and the extent of their dire financial scenario is currently shrouded in mystery.

ENDS

(Editorial from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)

Azerbaijan introduces tax exemption for investors

JAN. 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s finance minister Samir Sharifov said a new 20% tax on capital exports will not be imposed on foreign investors. The manat has lost around a third of its value since the Central Bank ditched a peg to the US dollar on Dec. 21. In response the government imposed various capital control requirements.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)

Azerbaijan’s Central Bank to compensate savers

JAN. 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s Central Bank said it would compensate customers of banks who lost savings in banks which have been stripped of their licences over the past couple of weeks. Legally, the Central Bank is only obliged to compensate up to 30,000 manat ($18,400). Around 6,600 customers will be eligible for the refund.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)

Inflation in Azerbaijan to soar in 2016

JAN. 24 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Inflation in Azerbaijan in 2016 will measure between 10% and 12%, finance minister Samir Sharifov said on TV, up from a previous estimate of 3%. In 2015 inflation measured 4%. The sudden increase is linked to the sharp devaluation in the manat currency, Mr Sharifov said.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)

Qatar expands routes to Armenia and Azerbaijan

JAN. 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Qatar Airways, the country’s flagship airline, said it would expand its routes in the South Caucasus in Q1 and Q2 of 2016. The company announced the opening of a new Doha-Yerevan route from May 2016. Qatar Airways will fly four times a week to Armenia’s capital. The company also plans to expand from seven to eleven the weekly flights to Baku, from the end of March.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)

Rights groups criticise Kazakhstan & Azerbaijan

JAN. 27 2016, ALMATY/Kazakhstan (The Conway Bulletin) — Human rights abuses, crackdowns on freedom of speech and endemic corruption still blight Central Asia and the South Caucasus, western watchdogs said in a series of annual reports.

According to New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) civil liberties worsened in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan last year as an economic crisis battered the region.

“Central Asian governments are becoming increasingly intolerant of dissent, criticism, and human rights scrutiny – an alarming trend,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at HRW.

Specifically, Mr Williamson said that Kazakhstan had used courts to silence opposition figures and that Azerbaijan’s crackdown on journalists and rights advocates was “unprecedented.”

Freedom House, another US- based civil rights lobby group, also criticised governments in Central

Asia and the South Caucasus for their record on freedom of speech.

“The [November parliamentary in Azerbaijan] elections followed another year of intense suppression of civil society and independent media,” Robert Ruby, Freedom House’s director of communication, said.

Corruption watchdog Transparency International projected a slightly more positive outlook for the region but, while Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan all improved their rankings in its global index, absolute scores in the region were mostly unchanged or down from 2014.

Transparency International’s director for Europe and Central Asia, Anne Koch said little had improved.

“While a handful of countries in Europe and Central Asia have improved, the general picture across this vast region is one of stagnation,” she said in the report.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)

Czech steel maker delivers materials to Azerbaijan

JAN. 22 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Czech steel maker Trinecke Zelezarny delivered to Azerbaijan material for the renovation of a railway route. Last September, Trinecke Zelezarny won a 15b crowns ($605m) contract to supply and repair over 600km of rails. The company sealed the contract after Czech President Milos Zeman visited Baku in September 2015. Azerbaijan is also the second-largest oil exporter to the Czech Republic after Russia.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)

Azerbaijan’s electricity exports halve

JAN. 22 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s customs agency said electricity exports had halved in 2015 compared to the previous year. Azerbaijan exported 276.8m kWh of electricity in 2015 against 588.3m kWh in 2014. Demand for electricity in Azerbaijan has soared, forcing it to divert exports for domestic consumption.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)

Azerbaijan cuts defence spending

JAN. 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan has cut its defence spending by 40%, IHS Jane’s Defence reported, part of its efforts to slash government costs as revenues falter in the worsening economic climate. Jane’s said that Azerbaijani government documents had shown that it had cut the so called Special Projects part of the defence budget which it estimated ran to 40% of its total budget.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)

Azerbaijan’s Central Bank reserves collapse

JAN. 22 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The reserves of Azerbaijan’s Central Bank fell by 60% in 2015 to $5b, it said, highlighting just how much cash it had burned through trying to prop up its ailing manat currency. The Central Bank was forced to devalue the manat twice last year as oil prices stayed stubbornly low. The manat is now worth around 50% of its value of a year ago.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)