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Ilham Aliyev: Azerbaijan to continue reforms for further economic stability [UPDATE]

19 March 2018 17:04 (UTC+04:00)
Ilham Aliyev: Azerbaijan to continue reforms for further economic stability [UPDATE]

By Trend

Serious reforms, held in the recent period in Azerbaijan in accordance with economic policy, have yielded good results, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said.

He made the remarks delivering a speech at the nationwide festivities on the occasion of Novruz, the Azerbaijani national holiday, in Baku March 19.

“We will continue these reforms and we will deepen them to further ensure stability of the Azerbaijani economy,” Ilham Aliyev said.

He noted that the country is developing successfully.

“Azerbaijan has achieved great success in the economic sphere,” he said. “The country’s GDP grew 1.3 percent for the first two months of this year and GDP in the non-oil sector grew 2.3 percent. Industrial production grew 1.4 percent, while production in the non-oil sector grew 8.4 percent. Agricultural production increased 4 percent, and incomes of the population grew 10.2 percent. Inflation stood at 4.7 percent. That is, our tasks are being fulfilled.”

He went on to add that Azerbaijan’s currency reserves over the first two months of this year increased by $2.1 billion and presently amount to $44 billion.

“This is a big figure,” he said. “We will increase our currency reserves even more during the year. The manat rate is stable. All infrastructure projects are being implemented successfully. These figures show our policy and the work done. At the same time, the Azerbaijani public is aware of this. I would like to reiterate that international financial institutions also highly appreciate our reforms. As for the calculations of the Davos World Economic Forum - these numbers were voiced repeatedly, but I would like to voice them again - today Azerbaijan is among the 35 most competitive countries of the world.”

The Azerbaijani president stressed that successful economic reforms are being completed with a very serious social policy.

“We always say that the Azerbaijani citizens are at the center of our policy,” Ilham Aliyev noted. “Sometimes radical economic reforms negatively affect the social sphere. That is why even in the past years, during the economic crisis, not a single social program was curtailed, and all social commitments were timely fulfilled. As our opportunities increased, we immediately started to pay even more attention to social issues, to allocate even more financial resources.”

Ilham Aliyev added that this year, salaries in organizations financed from the state budget were increased by 10 percent in Azerbaijan.

“If we look at the map of the world, we will see that today, salaries increase only in a few countries,” he said. “We are doing this and will continue to do this within our capabilities. This year, hundreds of millions of manats are allocated for raising salaries, allowances, pensions from the state budget. This shows our intention, our policy. Our goal is that the Azerbaijani citizens live better, that their well-being improves, that economic and social reforms in Azerbaijan, complementing each other, serve the development of our country.”

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