The gradual start of low oil prices effecting azeris.
"Consumers have taken it on the chin over the past two years in Azerbaijan, an energy-rich country in the Caucasus ruled by authoritarian President Ilham Aliyev since 2003.
In 2015, the Azerbaijani Central Bank twice devalued the country's currency, the manat, as slumping global prices for oil and natural gas sent the economy reeling. The currency lost half of its value vis-a-vis the U.S. dollar and average Azeris lost half their life savings as a result.
For those holding bank debt there was the extra burden of having to pay back the loans -- fixed in U.S. dollars -- with devalued manats.
A sharp rise in the suicide rate in Azerbaijan
is being blamed, in part at least, on the growing consumer-debt crisis there.
"Consumers have taken it on the chin over the past two years in Azerbaijan, an energy-rich country in the Caucasus ruled by authoritarian President Ilham Aliyev since 2003.
In 2015, the Azerbaijani Central Bank twice devalued the country's currency, the manat, as slumping global prices for oil and natural gas sent the economy reeling. The currency lost half of its value vis-a-vis the U.S. dollar and average Azeris lost half their life savings as a result.
For those holding bank debt there was the extra burden of having to pay back the loans -- fixed in U.S. dollars -- with devalued manats.
A sharp rise in the suicide rate in Azerbaijan

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