BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 17
Trend:
Our ill-wishers, internal and external anti-Azerbaijani forces are spreading rumors, trying to mislead people, to sow panic among them, said Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev while making an opening speech at the meeting on the socio-economic results of the first quarter of 2020 through videoconference, Trend reports.
“During the crisis, the banking sector is of particular importance. Therefore, the improvement of banks and the correct assessment of the contribution the banking sector can make to the country's economy are very important. I believe that the issues you underlined are based on an absolutely correct analysis. Of course, we must protect the macroeconomic situation and keep it stable. The experience of the first months of coronavirus shows that we have achieved this. The macroeconomic situation is stable, the manat rate is stable. As you noted, for some time the population and legal entities were taking steps towards dollarization. But there is a process of de-dollarization now. I want to draw the attention of the public to one more issue and express my opinion. Unfortunately, if there are any changes in the national currency of any country, especially neighboring countries, Azerbaijan immediately reacts to that even though there is no need for this,” said President Ilham Aliyev.
The head of state noted that we came across this several years ago, which is why we had to go for two devaluations.
“It is possible to say that the foreign exchange reserves of our Central Bank were shrinking, there was some artificial excitement and dollarization reached its peak – as was the case in the current environment. As soon as the coronavirus pandemic spread, the national currencies of some countries collapsed. But there is currently no reason for this in Azerbaijan. We have enough resources and representatives of government agencies made statements on this issue. However, some people spread rumors, others succumbed to panic. We immediately saw activity in the exchange market and the demand for dollars increased. At the initial stage, even the sale of a large volume of dollars was envisaged. But then we saw that the macroeconomic situation was stable, the manat rate was stable and there is no such excitement now. Therefore, I urge the people of Azerbaijan not to succumb to rumors, not to believe them. Our ill-wishers, internal and external anti-Azerbaijani forces are spreading rumors, trying to mislead people, to sow panic among them. There are no grounds for this,” said the head of state.
President Ilham Aliyev noted that Azerbaijan is a strong state and the Azerbaijani leadership shows everything the way it is to the citizens of Azerbaijan.
“We are not embellishing the big picture, but at the same time, I can say quite frankly that there is no reason for panic or any kind of concern. Our main goal is to win the fight against coronavirus, to overcome this situation with small losses and little damage to the economy. We are well aware that restrictive measures are harmful to the economy. Here we must make a choice between two factors – economic activity and public health. My choice is obvious – public health. Therefore, restrictive measures have been taken. Of course, we initially knew that this could negatively affect economic activity and inevitably lead to the spread of certain rumors and a certain concern in the economic sphere. We did it consciously to protect people, their lives, because there is nothing more valuable than this. The economy can survive the recession and grow next year. In any case, everything is under control. Therefore, there is no need for any anxiety in the exchange market today either,” said the head of state.