Fitch Ratings expects economic growth to strengthen in Azerbaijan in 2018

By  Trend

Fitch Ratings expects economic growth to strengthen in Azerbaijan in 2018, according to Fitch 2018 Outlook: CIS and Georgian Banks.

“We expect economic growth in 2018 will strengthen in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Azerbaijan. Growth will slow but remain healthy in Georgia, Armenia and Uzbekistan,” Fitch said.

“In Azerbaijan the authorities took important steps in 2017 in connection with the completion of large bad loan buy-outs from International Bank of Azerbaijan,” Fitch said. “But many other lenders still need to increase provisioning for their large portfolios of restructured and foreign-currency loans.”

Bank sector outlooks for the CIS and Georgia in 2018 are mostly stable, helped by a more supportive economic backdrop and steps to reduce asset quality pressure stemming from recessions and currency devaluations in recent years, Fitch Ratings says.