Azerbaijani President: Our foreign exchange reserves are growing

Baku, April 15 (AzerTAc). “Our foreign exchange reserves are growing. They have increased significantly in the first quarter. At the moment our foreign exchange reserves constitute $53 billion. This is a very large figure. If we consider the population of our country, we can see that in terms of this indicator – exchange reserves per capita – Azerbaijan is among leading countries of the world,” said President Ilham Aliyev in a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers dedicated to the results of socio-economic development in the first quarter of 2014 and objectives for the future. The Azerbaijani President noted: “Today, our experience and policies towards channeling funds into the real sector of the economy, attraction of investment and implementation of infrastructure projects are already perceived globally as an example. There used to be different opinions in relation to this policy. Some international financial were giving us other advice and putting forward different recommendations. But we pursued our policies correctly. We used our foreign exchange reserves very effectively for the development of the country, creation of a powerful potential and development of the non-oil sector.” “At the same time, our strong financial status preconditions our independent policy, because an economically free and independent country can speak its word in the international arena more confidently.” “In short, our main economic parameters are very positive. This allows us the opportunity to be optimistic of the future. I am sure that this growth rate will be maintained for the rest of the year and we will complete 2014 with great success,” President Ilham Aliyev added.