Azerbaijan, Baku, Nov. 13 / Trend A.Akhundov /
Azerbaijan's foreign debt is eight to nine percent of the GDP, and the government's steps will be to optimize this indicator.
This was said on Tuesday by chairman of the parliament committee on economic policy Ziyad Samadzadeh during the discussion of the bill on the state budget for 2013 and the next three years.
In 2013, the borrowing limit decreased by 1.3 billion manat compared with 2012, or by 62.5 percent to 750 million manat.
"Some 781 million manat will be allocated from the budget of 2013 to the service of public debt. This is a relatively large amount compared to previous years. This is due to the fact that along with the repayment of general debt, paying of interest on some loans will begin. If earlier Azerbaijan received loans from international financial institutions (especially the World Bank) on favorable terms, now, with the change of the country's financial status and the growth of per capita GDP, these organizations are making changes in the schedule of loan repayment," Finance Minister Samir Sharifov said previously.
However, Samadzadeh noted that amount of commercial banks' debts reached 300 million manat, which is an object to concern.
According to him, reducing the bank interest rates has to be considered today..
"Today, support of banks has to be increased to the real sector of the economy" Samadzade said.
The official exchange rate on November 13 is 0,7850 AZN / USD.