This year’s collapse of Azerbaijan’s currency has translated into some embarrassing statistics for Ilham Aliyev’s regime.
After 15 years of oil boom that has earned Baku $116 billion in total revenue, the official average monthly salary in Azerbaijan ($295) is now lower than in resource-poor Armenia ($385) and even Nagorno Karabakh ($313).
The Azerbaijani Central Bank’s decision to float the country’s currency on December 21 led to the loss of some one-third of the manat’s value — from 1.05 to 1.55 manats to the dollar.
The drop led stores and even entire shopping malls across the country to close as people rushed to buy things before store owners raised their prices, RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service reported.
“Azerbaijan has moved to a floating exchange rate, but someone forgot to teach it how to swim,” said Natiq Cafarli, an economist and member of the the Republican Alternative opposition group.
Ali Karimli, chairman of the Azerbaijan Popular Front Party, accused the government of “killing” the national currency.
“It was killed by a self-centered, corrupted, and incapable government,” Karimli said. “There will be price hikes [and] the salaries, pensions, savings — everything we have in manats is now practically devalued by 55 percent.”
