The Azerbaijan State News Agency

ECONOMY

EBRD pushes on with Azerbaijan gas loan after transparency rift

04.05.2017 [21:06]
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Baku, May 4, AZERTAC

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is pushing ahead with plans to lend $500 million to Azerbaijan's Southern Gas Corridor project after the nation was suspended from an international oil-wealth transparency watchdog, according to Bloomberg.

The development bank is "progressing" its financing to the $40 billion pipeline project with a final board decision expected by the end of the year, Suma Chakrabarti, the EBRD's president, said in an interview in London.

"What's happened on the EITI is very, very unfortunate," Chakrabarti said. He was critical of the watchdog's decision, saying that "quite a lot of people" were "worried about some of the criteria that are now being used in EITI."