Elman Rustamov, the chairman of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan, is trying to dispel rumors about furthers drops of the Azerbaijan currency, telling Azeri lawmakers on Jan. 19 that the banking sector is stable.
But the Azeri people seem to have a different opinion.
New protests took place in Baku on Jan. 19, this time against the high price of leases. According to tenants, leases are from 4,500-6,000 manat ($2,810-4,070), the independent internet news channel Meydan.TV reported.
Another protest took place in the biggest car spare parts market in Baku, also on Jan.19. Demonstrators say business is so bad they are not earning enough money to pay rents. Police were present at the event, but unlike in other recent protests in the regions, they did not attempt to disperse it.
Meanwhile, large numbers of layoffs are also hitting government. “We cut staff by 30 percent in order to make our staff work more effectively,” MadatQuliyev, the chief of State Security Service, said on Jan. 19, Meydan.TV reported.
Azerenergy joint-stock company, the biggest power producer in Azerbaijan, on Jan 20 announced it was cutting 250 jobs, theAzerbaijan Press Agency reported.
State officials have denied protests by Azerbaijani citizensare connected to the country’s growing economic crisis. On Jan. 19, the security chief Quliyev said the protests were not connected to the sharp devaluation of the currency.
“(The protesters) just don’t want to work,”Quliyev said in a statement reported on Meydan.TV.
“They have some bank loans, and now want the government to (help pay them back). All these issues have been reported to the president.”
Despite the denials, the Azerbaijani government has been taking steps to tackle the country’s currency crisis.A 20 percent mandatory fee for money transfers abroadon amounts that exceed $50,000 a year is one of the measures being considered, Trend News Agency reported on Jan.19. The fee won’t be applied to money transferred abroad for medical treatment, education, or to execute rulingsbyforeign courts and law enforcement agencies.
Another 20 percent mandatory fee is tobe chargedon currency transferred as a direct investment to purchase securities, real estate and land. However, it will not apply to banking and insurance institutions.
The government also is considering issuing dollar-denominated loans of up to $5,000 at the exchange rate of 1.05 manat per dollar.
The official exchange rate of the Azerbaijani manat was AZN 1.6028 to the dollar on Jan. 19.
Azerbaijan’s current economic problems started in December, when the government took a long-postponed decision to unpeg the Azeri currency, the manat, from the U.S. dollar. As soon as the government released its tight control on exchange rates on Dec. 21, the manat nosedived, losing 32 percent of its value in just a few hours.
Kyiv Post intern Gulnar Salimova can be reached at [email protected]
