Azerbaijan

No amount/estimate: (i) 19 March 2020, The CBA left the refinancing rate unchanged at 7.25%, but raised the floor of the interest rate corridor (within a de facto floor system) by 125 basis points (bps) to 6.75%. 1 May 2020, The CBA lowered the ceiling of the interest rate corridor by 100 bps to 8%; (ii) 19 June 2020, The CBA decided to reduce the discount rate from 7.25% to 7%. The lower limit of the interest rate corridor was set at 6.5%, and the upper limit of the interest rate corridor was set at 7.5%; (iii) 18 September 2020, The CBA has lowered its interest rates by 0.25 percentage points, from 6.75% to 6.5%.

No amount/estimate: (i) 19 March 2020. The authorities have announced their intention to extend the blanket deposit guarantee until 4 December 2020 (the interest rate cap for national currency denominated deposits 10% and for foreign currency denominated deposits 2.5%) irrespective of deposits’ amount, currency and banks’ financial standing; (ii) 23 April 2020, Suspension of inspections of credit institutions; (iii) 30 December 2020, Regulatory requirements for the classification of loans have been relaxed and dividend payments have been limited until 1 April 2021. Loan classification concessions were applied to interest-subsidized business loans and restructuring of loans issued at the expense of state funds.

No amount/estimate: April 2020, Tax exemptions for micro-enterprises and value-added tax (VAT) exemption for some food and medicinal products, as well as the raw materials that are necessary.

No amount/estimate: (i) April 2020, Lump-sum payments in the amount of living wage - AZN190 (USD112) to 200,000 unemployed citizens of the country. The payment is considered for two months. The social package aims to relieve the impact of the novel coronavirus on the social life of people by multiple tools, including creation of 50,000 paid public jobs, tuition support program for students from socially vulnerable families, financial support program for mortgage and credit guarantee mechanism, program to support communal fees, primarily for electricity consumption of the population, and financial support program for vital passenger transport activities; (ii) 04 May 2021, To reduce the negative impact of COVID-19 on vulnerable families, the Azerbaijan government adopted the resolution to cover the tuition fees of students from families classified under socially vulnerable groups and receiving paid education for the spring semester (semester) of 2020/2021 academic year .

(i) 6 April 2020, AZN1 billion (USD588 million) for the government's subsidization of 10% of the interest for one year of existing company loans; (ii) 19 May 2020, USD50 million, or about AZN85 million (of the USD200 million swap with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)) is allocated as support to local firms, including smaller viable enterprises experiencing temporary difficulties; (iii) No amount/estimate: 6 August 2020, The government announced a financial support package for pandemic-affected industries that did not implement significant reductions in the number of employees. Financial support will be paid in equal installments in two stages, covering August and September; (iv) 11 August 2020, The government announced a second phase of financial support to individual (micro) entrepreneurs. The first phase of the program has already released AZN63.55 million of cash transfers to 106,907 individual (micro) entrepreneurs.

(i) April 2020, Country Support under TA 9950-REG: Regional Support to Address the Outbreak of COVID-19 and Potential Outbreaks of Other Communicable Diseases (USD1.86 million); (ii) 3 June 2020, Developing a Disaster Risk Transfer Facility in the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Region (Additional Financing) (USD0.07 million); (iii) 13 July 2020, Addressing Health Threats in the Central, West and East Asia Region (USD0.13 million); (iv) 24 July 2020, Due Diligence and Capacity Development of Trade Finance Program Banks (Subproject 3) (USD0.07 million); (v) Supporting Startup Ecosystem in the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Region to Mitigate Impact of COVID-19 and Support Economic Revival (USD0.05 million); (vi) 26 November 2020, Addressing Health Threats in the Central, West and East Asia Region (Additional Financing) (USD0.03 million); (vii) 22 June 2021, COVID-19 Staple Food Security Project (USD5.90 million); (viii) 7 July 2021, COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support Program (USD0.25 million) [update]; (ix) 7 September 2021, Due Diligence and Capacity Development of Trade Finance Program Banks (Subproject 4) (USD0.19 million) [update]; (x) 22 September 2021, Fostering Regional Cooperation and Integration through Knowledge and Capacity Building of Trade and Supply Chain Finance Program Banks (USD 0.06 million); (xi) 3 November 2021, COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support Program (USD250 million) [update].

(i) No amount/estimate: March 2020, Testing and personal protective equipment supplies from WHO; (ii) 21 August 2020, USAID provided more than USD5 million in total assistance for the country’s COVID-19 response includes (a) USD3 million in health assistance which is helping prepare laboratory systems, support technical experts for response and preparedness, bolster risk communications, and more; (b) USD1 million in Economic Support Fund (ESF) to support advisory services and technical assistance to small- and medium-sized enterprises; and (c) more than USD1 million in Migration and Refugee Assistance (MRA) humanitarian assistance that will help vulnerable migrants, displaced people and host communities during the pandemic.