Azerbaijan on the verge of bankruptcy

PanARMENIAN.Net - Out of it, 2 344 730 tons was transported through the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline, 3 856 983.5 tons through the Baku-Supsa oil pipeline, 31 951 468.9 tons through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, and still 1 284 657.7 tons was transported by rail. In total, as reported by Xronika.az, for the period of January - November 2009 Azerbaijan's foreign trade fell by 2.9 times. Exports fell by 3.57 times, while imports by 18.35%.

Crude oil and petroleum products accounted for 91.63% of the Azerbaijani exports in January-November of this year, against 96.94% of the same period in 2008. The share of crude oil in total exports of Azerbaijan during the accounting period amounted to 81.28% (against 92.76% of January-November 2008), that of oil products - 10,35% (against 4.18%). The amount of oil exports fell by 75.44% as compared with January-November 2008, amounting to more than 25.575 million tons.

It is natural that Azerbaijan, whose lion's share of the budget is formed by the export of petroleum products, was forced to cut its budget expenditures for 2010 by 17%. Moreover, half of the means it had to levy from the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan, where the oil export windfalls had been accumulated, and it was assumed that after the oil boom in Azerbaijan, funds from the State Oil Fund would smooth up the difference in the income fall of the state. However, more than $ 6 billion will be withdrawn from the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan as early as 2010.

Against these trends, the national debt of Azerbaijan increased by 11% , oil refining fell by 18.4%, market of building materials collapsed by 60%. Negative trends have intensified in the social sphere too; more than 1.2 million Azeris live in poverty, and social spending for the budget of 2010 has been reduced.

In fact, Ilham Aliyev's Khanate is on the verge of collapse and his bellicose statements are actually made to distract people from pressing problems. This method is pretty old and not always works in the direction advantageous for the authorities. Be that as it may, in the oil issue Baku chose the line of least resistance: she played on increasing demand, blackmailing the West, provoking and molding the image of the enemy-Armenian, but finally she gained nothing. And then there was the crisis, which, as asserted by the President's cronies, has bypassed Azerbaijan...

Possession of energy resources and the inability to dispose of them is the fate of the politicians, who rely on anything but reason. But Azerbaijan could in fact be transformed into a prosperous country in the region, be there a desire and appropriate skills. But because there is neither, there remains only one thing - to shift the blame on the Armenians, who hamper Azeris in everything: starting with the history and ending with the skills to manage the wealth fallen from heaven. But, of course, the most ridiculous thing against this background is the statement of state officials, who claim that the right of nations to self-determination does not apply to Nagorno-Karabakh. After such statements not even a sudden increase of oil exports or the sudden fulfillment of its dream to participate in the Nabucco project can save Azerbaijan.