S&P considered Azerbaijan's fiscal and external stock positions to be among the strongest in the 'BB' category.

Armenia and Turkey agreed to nominate representatives to set up formal relations and Turkey’s civil aviation authority said two airlines would begin flights between Yerevan and Istanbul next month.

Sargsyan had been at odds with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, particularly on some of the issues in moving towards peace since last year’s 44-day “Second Karabakh War” in which Azerbaijan made big advances.

Lenders reported a rise in total net profit of 7.2 percent year-on-year of 609 million manats ($358 million) in 2021.

Commercial banks reported a total net profit of 2.081 billion lari ($674 million) from January to December 2021 compared to a profit of 99.3 million lari in 2020.