Financial sector's role in Azerbaijan's economic development to grow, expert says
The financial sector's role in the economic development of Azerbaijan will grow, expert Farhad Amirbayov believes.
"I think here the matter rests in changing the general paradigm of national economic development from raw materials to a more complex model," Amirbayov said, commenting on Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's speech at the last meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers.
The meeting was dedicated to the socio-economic development of Azerbaijan in the first half of 2014, and the challenges ahead.
In his closing speech, the president said the commercial banks in Azerbaijan need to actively lend to the economy's real sector.
At the same time, President Aliyev emphasized that the private sector should understand its responsibility and contribute to the common cause.
The expert said that when taking a look at the structure of the banks' loan portfolio, one can see that about 40 percent of it consists of loans to the population.
"This is a rather high level. At the same time the depth of bank loans' penetration to the corporate sector remains low. The corporate sector needs "long-term money" and, most importantly, much cheaper money," Amirbayov stressed.
Aside from that, there are issues regarding finding sources of such money for the corporate sector, the expert said, adding that they can be both internal and external.
"We can formulate the problem as follows: using what competitive products will allow the country's banks go to the corporate sector," Amirbayov added.