Azerbaijan, Baku, 15 April / corr. Trend I. Khalilova/ The inflation forecasts of the Azerbaijani government is less than 5% - 6% than that of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
"If there is no sharp rise in consumer prices worldwide, our forecast will prove to be true," said Heydar Babayev, the minister of economic development of Azerbaijan on 15 April. "IMF may be aware of the price rise ahead of time, hence its forecast," he said.
According to UN data, during the course of January and February, there was a price rise by 82% in bread-grain and by 52% for rice. According to the minister, this price rise affects not only cereals, but also poultry and cattle breeding products.
The high inflation rate in Azerbaijan in the first quarter caused a price rise during the pre-holiday period. He believes that the prices will be regulated up to certain limit. Macroeconomic figures will be corrected as well within the changes to the forecast for 2008, the minister said.
The Anti-Monopoly Service of Azerbaijan regularly monitors the artificial price rise, and the rise in monopoly. If the product is imported, the government cannot demand the entrepreneurs to sell it lower than its cost as the prices are formed by world markets, he said.
Apart from this, the growth rates of inflation made up 16.7% in 2007 and 16.5% in January and March 2008.
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