BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 12
By Zeyni Jafarov - Trend:
During last week the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $250 million loan to Azerbaijan to help implement a comprehensive plan to mitigate the adverse health, social and economic impacts of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) plans to approve the allocation of a loan to Azerbaijan in the amount of up to $100 million.
The decision may be approved on July 15 to assist in the implementation of measures to mitigate the adverse medical, social and economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The total cost of the program is expected to exceed $1.7 billion, of which more than $1.4 billion will be covered by the Azerbaijani government. The remaining $250 million will fall on the Asian Development Bank loan and $100 million on the AIIB loan.
Azerbaijani Economy Minister Mikayil Jabbarov said that the Entrepreneurship Development Fund under the Azerbaijani Ministry of Economy has issued preferential loans worth 24.9 million manat ($14.6 million) via the authorized credit organizations from January through May 2021.
Jabbarov added that these loans were used to finance 339 investment projects.
The total volume of transactions on state securities at the Baku Stock Exchange (BSE) exceeded five billion manat ($2.9 billion) while on corporate securities - about 203.6 million manat ($119.8 million) in the first half of 2021.
The capitalization of the BSE as of the last trading day in June amounted to 4.2 billion manat ($2.5 billion), having increased by nine percent since the beginning of the year.
The strengthening of the Azerbaijani manat rate against the currencies of Azerbaijan's main partner countries and an increase in gold prices have been observed this week.