Azerbaijan, Baku, Nov. 22 / corr. Trend D.Nasibova /
Creation of a single economic zone on the territory of CIS is promising, General Secretary of the Banking Association for Central and Eastern Europe (BACEE) Istvan Lengyel told Trend.
"Creating a single economic zone in the CIS is promising, and the integration process in the region will continue to evolve. Creating such a powerful entity will be useful for the member states of the Commonwealth. However, the creation of a common currency is not a priority in this process," Lengyel said.
According to him, a single economic zone is a positive factor, but one must be very careful in matters on a single currency, given the current problems in the Eurozone.
According to him, it is important to consider who should be invited to join the single currency, taking into consideration the example of Greece, which could not fully fit in the Eurozone, despite attempts to keep the country in its framework.
"The difference in the level of inflation and the level of interest rates has to be considered in matters of a common currency. For example, in Greece the figure was eight percent, while in Germany is stood at two percent. Therefore when Greece joined the euro zone, its loans fell in price, creating problems, " Lengyel said.
As for the integration of Azerbaijan into a single economic zone, the manager of the Baku Interbank Currency Exchange (BBVB) Farhad Amirbekov said that within monocultural economy products exported by Azerbaijan are currently not exposed to competition.
"Oil and gas are liquid commodities, their prices are determined without participation of an exporter. Entry to the market with products that have qualitatively different properties, would force us to change position in the global division of labor, leading to a very tough competition," Amirbekov said.
According to him, in these circumstances, the support of the state exceptionally in the framework of the nation state will not be sufficient.
"We would have to adjust to certain conditions, to the rules of another 'game', therefore, integration is an objective process," Amirbekov said.