OKTAY ASADOV: WE SAVE MONEY FOR WAR

Turan Information Agency, Azerbaijan
February 24, 2015 Tuesday

Baku / 24.02.15 / Turan: The central issue of today’s meeting of
the Parliament was the financial crisis that broke out after the
devaluation of the manat.

MP Igbal Aghazadeh demanded that the government of Azerbaijan
should compensate for damage caused to citizens as a result of the
depreciation of the national currency by 34%.

The Central Bank of Azerbaijan on December 30, 2014 stated that the
value of the national currency will not fall, and after less than
two months it deceived the country’s population, he said.

The Antimonopoly Service of the Ministry of Economy and Industry
said on artificially high prices by speculators. As a result of the
devaluation bank depositors were damaged at 3 billion manat, despite
the fact that the total amount of deposits of the population is 7.2
billion manat.

“I demand the government should offset the damage to the population
in all areas, including indexation of wages and social protection
for vulnerable people,” said Aghazadeh.

In response, the Speaker of the Milli Mejlis Oktay Asadov said
that within two months the country’s citizens was able to convert
their savings, “and during this period there has been converted $
4.5 billion.”

“The government kept the manat as much as it could. However,
Azerbaijan is at war with Armenia and does not exclude the possibility
of launching active military and other actions that may require
additional funds. It is necessary to think about the future, we can
not spend all of today reserves,” said the speaker.

“As far as I know, 70% of food production is domestic production and
higher prices should not be applied. The Ministry of Economy and
Industry is developing a plan to keep prices on the background of
the devaluation of the manat,” said Asadov.

The MP Ziyad Samedzade said that the devaluation of the manat was
“a necessary step”, given that the price of oil in the state budget
in 2015 is laid at $ 90.

“Now oil prices do not exceed $ 60. If it continues, by the end of the
year the budget deficit will amount to 7.6 billion manat. CBA annually
spent 2-2.5 billion manat for retention of the national currency.

However, permanent measures could lead to depletion of the reserves,”
said Samedzade.

MP Vahid Akhmedov blamed the central bank for the situation. “Until
the last days the CBA promised that the dollar rate would not exceed
0.9 manat. But it immediately reduced the cost by 34%.

I believe that the government should take urgent anti-crisis measures
to prevent the growth of prices, which has now become the most serious
problem, Akhmedov said. -02D-