BAKU, Azerbaijan, Oct. 17
Trend:
Last week, the State Statistics Committee of Azerbaijan published data on the state budget of the country, Trend reports with reference to the report of the State Statistics Committee.
From January through September 2020, the deficit of the state budget of Azerbaijan amounted to 677.6 million manat, and the revenues of the state budget amounted to more than 17.9 billion manat, which is 6.5 percent more than the same period last year. According to the report, the state budget expenditures amounted to more than 18.6 billion manat, which is 11.7 percent more compared to the same period last year.
Also, according to the report of the State Statistics Committee of Azerbaijan, in 9M2020, the volume of cargo transportation by all types of vehicles amounted to 140.6 million tons. A significant share of the total volume of cargo transportation (59.1 percent) fell on road transport, which amounted to 83 million tons.
This week the Central Bank of Azerbaijan jointly with IBM has created a digital identification system. Within the framework of this project, for the first time in the country, the Hyperledger Fabric blockchain platform was introduced. The platform provides full protection of the confidentiality of information in a database based on distributed ledger technology.
Thus, it was possible to open bank accounts and receive payment cards in a pilot mode with their identification in accordance with the client recognition policy for remote receipt of financial and banking services by legal entities and individuals.
Currently, the International Bank of Azerbaijan OJSC, Access Bank CJSC, Azer-Turk Bank OJSC, Bank Respublika OJSC, Expressbank OJSC, Kapital Bank OJSC, Muganbank OJSC, Rabitabank OJSC, Unibank, VTB Bank OJSC (Azerbaijan).
In addition, this week the World Bank presented Azerbaijan's second project in the field of water supply and sanitation. To solve problems in this direction, the project financed investments in the restoration and reconstruction of the entire water supply cycle, including water supply and storage systems, sewerage network,s and wastewater treatment in selected areas. As a result, the project provided 324,000 Azerbaijanis with an improved water supply and sanitation services from 2008 to 2019.
Also, Gazprombank announced its forecast for Azerbaijan this week. According to the forecast, inflation risks in the Azerbaijani economy for 2021 will remain low. The base scenario assumed inflation in Azerbaijan at the level of 3 percent, which is more than the previous year by 0.4 percentage points. The slowdown in inflation in September this year was facilitated by the dynamics of prices for food products, whose growth slowed down by 0.6 percentage points in annual terms and amounted to 4.3 percent.
Last week it became known that the insurance company Amrah Sigorta OJSC is terminating its activity. It was reported that the management of Amrah Sıgorta decided to terminate the activities and voluntarily liquidate the company. According to the decision, the company is preparing to send an appeal to the relevant structures, including the Central Bank of Azerbaijan and the State Tax Service under the Ministry of Economy, which are regulators of the insurance market. In addition, Amrah Sıgorta decided to suspend the current insurance contracts.
In addition, the outgoing week was remembered by the rise in oil prices, as well as the strengthening of the manat in relation to the currencies of the main partner countries.
Zeyni Jafarov
Department of Economics at Trend News Agency