"S&P Global Ratings" International Rating Agency has improved the risk assessment of Azerbaijan's banking sector for the first quarter of 2023.

"APA-Economics" reports that this was stated in the Agency's risk assessment for the banking sector.

Thus, "S&P" reduced the economic risk score for the country's banking sector from 9 points to 8 points.

"S&P Global Ratings" noted that Azerbaijan's banking sector has shown better resilience to macroeconomic difficulties in recent years, and the level of credit costs and non-performing loans (NPLs) in the system is much lower than the agency's previous expectations.

"We believe that against the background of the economic slowdown and the drop in oil prices, the banking sector of Azerbaijan successfully called the difficult year 2020. The quality indicators of the banks' assets show a continuous improvement to the level of historically low loan debts and loan expenses. The impact of the economic recession and the drop in oil prices , has been softer than we expected, mainly due to a faster economic recovery and a wide range of government support measures to the economy affecting borrowers. is supported" - stated in the statement of "Standard and Poor's".

It should be noted that according to the Agency's banking industry country risk assessment (BICRA), 1 point is the lowest and 10 points is the highest risk.

It should be noted that among the countries of Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Azerbaijan is ranked below Armenia and Uzbekistan, ahead of Kazakhstan, Turkey, Egypt, Belarus and Ukraine.