Azerbaijan, Baku, May 1 / Trend , D.Ibrahimova/
International organizations recognize Azerbaijan's economy stable and durable, head of the Strategic Research Centre at the Azerbaijani Presidential Administration said.
"Azerbaijan's economy is stable on the background of continued global financial crisis," Nuriyev said during his speech at the 8th Eurasian media forum in Almaty on April 23-24.
The forum reviewed relevant issues and challenges of global financial crisis. There were held several meetings. The first meeting was dedicated to discussions of the global economic crisis and was called "Myth and reality", Nuriyev said.
The new capitalism idea was discussed at the second meeting. Experts believe that capitalism has failed and needs reforms. The viability of "new capitalism" was reviewed.
The objectivity of journalism was discussed at the third meeting. In particular, the conflict in South Ossetia and its interpretation by press, a split between in reality were discussed.
"Of course, Azerbaijan's economy is developing on the background of globalization and interdependent architecture of the world economy. The decrease of oil prices and stock exchange fluctuations leaves traces on national economy. However, country's well designed economy strategy and effective leadership allow to minimize the influence of global financial crisis on Azerbaijan's economy," Nuriyev said.
Nuriyev explained the stability and durable of Azerbaijan's economy through several factors:
First, Azerbaijan's economy has been growing over the last years. Growth of GDP hit 26.4 percent in 2005, 34.5 percent - in 2006, 25 percent - in 2007 and 10.8 percent - in 2008.
Moreover, economic growth from 2003 to 2008 has been comparatively analyzed. If world economic growth over 5 years amounted to 25.4 percent, including the growth of the economy of the United States amounted to 13.3 percent, then 13.7 percent - in EU countries, 45.4 percent - in the CIS countries, 66, 5 percent - in China, as well as Azerbaijan's economy grew by 2,6 times in five years.
The country's budgetary expenses increased more than 10 times, while the poverty rate dropped from 49 percent in 2003 to 13 percent in early 2009. In the first quarter of 2009, GDP grew by more than four percent, while non-oil sector - nearly 14 percent.
Second, the Central Bank of Azerbaijan is implementing a stable, maneuverable monetary policy aimed at strengthening the stability of the banking sector, which is not observed, for example, in the other CIS countries. The Central Bank performing a coordinating function, consistently analyzes banks' liquidity. The main factor which provides security of the banking system, is that foreign loaning comprises only 18 percent of the assets of the country's banks, while this figure is 78 percent in Kazakhstan.
The third is absence of devaluation of Azerbaijan's national currency. Since early 2009, rate of the manat to the U.S. dollar decreased by 0.5 percent, while to the euro appreciated by more than 9 percent.
Meanwhile, shares of Azerbaijani enterprises and domestic banks are not in the world exchanges' turnover, and investment portfolio of Azerbaijani banks does not include in stakes of giant financial organizations suffered from crisis. A balanced policy is pursued in foreign loaning, public debt amounts to $2.6 billion or 6.5 percent of GDP - $300 for every citizen.
Nuriyev said, the government pursued a flexible fiscal policy, as well as a prudent policy in mortgage loaning. As a result, there is a fairly stable economic situation in Azerbaijan and a favorable macroeconomic dynamics has been maintained.
Reviews of the world's financial institutions and rating agencies testifies maintaining strength and stability of Azerbaijan's national economy, Nuriyev said. According to the report the World Bank Global Economic Prospects 2009, GDP growth in Azerbaijan is forecast at 10.4 percent in 2009. This report indicates that Azerbaijan occupies a leading position on the growth of GDP among the countries of Europe and Central Asia.
In 2010, the World Bank forecasts GDP growth for Azerbaijan at the level of 7-8 percent, which is also the highest rate in the region.
According to Nuriyev, even Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said in his recent speech about the global financial crisis where he evaluated the state of the CIS economies that Azerbaijan has the lowest impact of global financial crisis.