Finance

Finance

New Year Holiday will cost Azerbaijan $83 million

17 December 2009 10:56 (UTC +04:00)

According to regulations, when a holiday falls on a Saturday or Sunday, the next working day shall become a public holiday too.

According to the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers, non-working days are from December 31, 2009 to January 4, 2010 (December 31 is the Day of Solidarity of World Azerbaijanis, January 1-2 are the New Year, January 3-4 are also public holiday days because January 2-3 are Saturday and Sunday).

Although the public holidays are nonworking days for employees of the public and private sectors, the employers are paid for these days.

As calculated by APA-Economics, the wages for five non-working days total AZN 67 million.

Given that the total salary fund is AZN 4 884 million per year, the wages for five days are AZN 66.9 million or US $83.3 million or 2.5% of average monthly GDP.

This amount can be viewed as a financial loss for the government.