BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 9. Azerbaijan and the UK discussed prospects for economic cooperation this week, Trend reports.
Besides, the 6th meeting of the Joint Commission on Economic Cooperation between the governments of Azerbaijan and the UK was held this week, during which the sides agreed to explore opportunities for Azerbaijan to use the UK Export Finance's (UKEF) global direct lending mechanism for green energy projects.
Meanwhile, the Mastercard global payment system expressed intention to achieve 60 percent digitalization of payments in Azerbaijan.
“Our primary objective is to automate the economy. We intend to expand Azerbaijan's digitalization of personal consumption expenditures to 60 percent, which is the average in Europe. First, we want to make card issuing easier by using digital acquisitions and digital cards. What exactly does this mean? As a consumer, you will increasingly become a bank customer via digital channels and have access to digital cards in your wallets," Mastercard General Director for Azerbaijan and Türkiye Avsar Gurdal noted.
"Isn't it a wonderfully seamless experience? We want to ensure that these types of value propositions, as well as mobile payments and NFC payments, continue to evolve in the market. We want to make certain that it is in the best interests of the consumers. To that end, we are creating customer value propositions associated with NFC payments, such as discounts in restaurants, grocery stores, and other industries, in order to encourage consumers to use their digital wallets to pay more frequently,” he said.
Gurdal also emphasized that Mastercard is actively working activating money transfers via mobile number in Azerbaijan, and is currently collaborating with the International Bank of Azerbaijan on this issue.
The Executive Director of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) Agshin Valiyev was dismissed this week.
Additionally, the CBA has annulled the license of Nakhchivansigorta OJSC on the voluntary application.
Azerbaijan's Kapital Bank shared expectations to obtain net profit of 200 million manat ($117.6 million) at the end of this year.
Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors at Kapital Bank Farid Huseynov said that a part of the consumer loan portfolio of Nakhchivanbank OJSC - 60 million manat or $35.29 million out of 100 million manat ($59 million) had been transferred to Kapital Bank.
Huseynov also noted that Kapital Bank has no plans to buy Nakhchivanbank.
"However, we can regularly negotiate the acquisition of any asset in various banking and non-banking credit organizations," he said during a press conference dedicated to the results of the year and the strategy for 2024-2026.
Moreover, Huseynov pointed out that Kapital Bank intends to launch Birbank Investments, a mobile banking app, next year.
The deputy chairman further said that Kapital Bank has no plans to open bank branches abroad in the next three years.
He added that the bank will open a branch in Shusha city at the beginning of 2024.
Besides, this week, analysts from the ING (International Netherlands Group) company forecasted the average annual inflation rate in Azerbaijan to be five percent in 2024 (compared to the previous forecast of 5.5 percent).
The average annual inflation in Azerbaijan for 2023 was forecasted to be 9.1 percent (unchanged from the previous forecast), and for 2025, the company predicted this indicator to be 5.6 percent (the forecast remained unchanged).
Furthermore, analysts from ING predicted the GDP growth in Azerbaijan to be 0.6 percent in 2023, 2.5 percent in 2024, and 2.7 percent in 2025.
Thus, according to ING's forecasts, the average annual economic growth in Azerbaijan from 2023 through 2025 will be 1.93 percent.