"The economy has its own laws. Azerbaijan is part of the global economy. The work carried out in Azerbaijan deserves approval, and influential international financial institutions praise our success. But the processes in the region affect us, and over the past few months of the last year, thd tension on the CIS landscape has, in some ways, affected the Azerbaijani economy. The main issue is to protect the Azerbaijani people from possible risks, increase stability in the country and protect the people's choice," President Ilham Aliyev said, speaking at the opening of the Mingachevir city hospital after major repairs.
According to the President, "Unfavorable processes in the Middle East, Europe and CIS didn't have a negative impact on the work carried out in Azerbaijan. That is because we are able to protect ourselves and our choice." "However, the negative processes taking place in the region in the economic sphere have, of course, influenced us. A few days ago, there was an amendment to the rate of the manat," he said.
"Back in 2006 we conducted a monetary reform. The decision to do so was made in 2005. Our reforms ended at the beginning of 2006. Naturally, the older generation remembers this. Until that time, one dollar was equal to 5,000 manats. We equalized the manat and dollar, so one manat became one dollar. And for the next ten years the manat was growing stronger against the dollar. In reality, this showed the success of our economic reforms," Ilham Aliyev said.
"However, ongoing developments in nearby countries and the sharp fall of the national currencies of neighboring countries, started, in one way or another, to negatively affect Azerbaijan. In addition, the sharp fall in world oil prices has negatively affected Azerbaijan's revenues. At the same time, the gradual appreciation of the manat had a negative effect on the development of our economy. A decision was made to slightly cheapen the manat," Trend cited the head of state.
According to him, developments in the region and the decline in oil prices in the world have led to certain difficulties. "It was the first signal. After that, our central bank said that the rate of the manat will gradually fall until the end of the year. This was also a signal that the people were ready for it. But then we saw that there was a certain excitement. When the rate of manat changed, people began to buy dollars at exchange offices," the president said.
At the same time, some speculators have taken advantage of this situation to make an unreasonable profit, he said."Before the rate was corrected, our currency reserves, the reserves of the Central Bank started to decrease. For several days people bought $500 million a day; if such a situation had continued, the currency reserves of the Central Bank could have reduced significantly. Therefore, we decided to devaluate the manat. In fact, the manat fell to its previous level," Ilham Aliyev said.
"In recent years all the major foodstuffs have been produced inside Azerbaijan, which is why any increase in food prices is out of the question. Those who artificially increase prices will be punished by the state. Later, Azerbaijan will continue the process of successful economic development. The economy is stable, the social and political situation is strong. Equating the manat to the US dollar will help even more money to be spent on social issues, and all the infrastructure projects necessary for the country have been implemented," the head of state said.
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