The State Social Protection Fund (SSPF) will soon conduct indexing of the insurance part of labour pensions in accordance with the consumer price index for 2011, head of the Fund Salim Muslimov said at a meeting with members of the Caspian Integration Business Club (CIBC). "We appealed to the State Statistics Committee and received data stating that the consumer price index in 2011 hit 7.9 per cent. This indicates that from Jan.1, 2012 the insurance part of labour pensions will grow by 7.9 per cent," Mr Muslimov said.

India has said it won't cut down its oil imports from Iran, apparently making it clear that it would not buckle to any pressure from the U.S. or western countries which have imposed sanctions on Tehran, Xinhua reported. "It is not possible for India to take any decision to reduce the imports from Iran drastically, because among the countries which can provide the requirement of the emerging economies, Iran is an important country amongst them," Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said.

The State Customs Committee (SCC) of Azerbaijan has prepared a bill on the customs tariff and submitted it for endorsement to relevant departments, head of the SCC Aydin Aliyev said at a meeting dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Azerbaijani Customs Committee. Currently customs tariffs in Azerbaijan are regulated on the basis of the law adopted in 1995. The customs tariff is a code of customs dues applied for goods transferred across the Azerbaijani customs border and classified in accordance with product nomenclature of foreign economic trading.

SOCAR eurobonds will be included in a UK listing and on the London Stock Exchange, SOCAR said on Monday. Eurobonds will be placed beyond Azerbaijan and the U.S. SOCAR has today started talks with investors for the upcoming placement. The bonds will be placed taking into account market conditions. The conditions will be specified after a series of meetings with investors, which will begin on Jan. 30.

Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov has approved the staff of an intergovernmental Turkmen-Turkish commission for economic cooperation. The move will serve the goal of building further cooperation between Turkmenistan and Turkey, he said. An official Turkmen source earlier reported that the committee's fourth meeting will be held in Ashgabat this month. Turkey remains one of Turkmenistan's largest trade partners. The trade between the two countries hit $341 million in 2005. This level reached $3 billion in late 2010.

The increase in energy reserves enhances Azerbaijan's role for Turkey, Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Taner Yildiz said in an interview with T24 on Friday. "The discovery of new gas fields in Azerbaijan is also our achievement," Minister said. Yildiz said that the implementation of Trans Anadolu (TANAP) project contributes to the supply of Azerbaijani gas to Europe.

Iran does not need to sell oil to Europe and new sanctions against it will not keep the country from improvement, Mehr News Agency quoted the Iranian president as saying. The Western actions are created to derail Iran's progress and development, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said during a visit to a copper factory in the province of Kerman. In a warning to Persian Gulf countries, the president said that they should understand that they are useful only to the U.S. because they have oil. He warned them that they were in danger of becoming the Western playthings.

The construction of Azerbaijani-Turkish Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) will require revision of routes and tariffs of the Southern Gas Corridor projects (Nabucco, TAP and ITGI), Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said in interview with Reuters. "If Turkey goes ahead with the construction of TANAP, then routes and tariffs of the Nabucco, TAP and ITGI projects will need to be revised," he said. TANAP is a proposed Azerbaijan-Turkish project, which envisages a construction of pipeline from the eastern border of Turkey to the country's western border.

Foreign direct investments are expected to grow more slowly across the globe in 2012 amid the debt crisis and market turbulences, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said Tuesday, DPA reported. While global foreign investments rose 17 per cent to 1.5 trillion dollars (1.2 trillion euros) last year, the rate would slow to 6.7 per cent this year, according to a report by the Geneva-based body.

Azerbaijani Transport Ministry has expanded the list of cars that can be used as a taxi. Ministry’s spokesman Namig Hasanov says the Ministry recently unveiled a list of Car category, which includes both foreign cars, and cars made in Azerbaijan, namely the Chevrolet Cruze, Chevrolet Aveo, Kia Cerato, Saipa, Fiat Albeo, Lifan and Azsamand.