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Azerbaijan’s downward trend in imports to be preserved in 2015

Business Materials 29 January 2015 15:08 (UTC +04:00)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 29

By Azad Hasanli - Trend:

The decline in imports did not affect the budget execution by the customs authorities of Azerbaijan in 2014, Chairman of the Azerbaijani State Customs Committee Aydin Aliyev told Trend.

"The customs bodies have encountered certain difficulties with the budget execution in connection with a decrease in the volume of import operations," he said. "However, despite this, the State Customs Committee's budgetary obligations for 2014 were executed at 100.05 percent or 1.510 billion AZN."

"The import operations decreased by $1.522 billion in 2014 compared to 2013 and amounted to $9.184 billion," Aliyev said. "We believe that this trend will be preserved."

He said that the decline was mainly observed in the import of vehicles, wood and wooden items, ferrous metal products, as well as electrical equipment, cereals, salt, sulfur, lime and cement.

"One of the reasons for the decline in vehicle imports is the use of Euro-4 standard in the country since April 1, 2014," Aliyev said. "It envisages the imports of more expensive vehicles."

Aliyev said that one can assume that the imports of excisable goods will not greatly increase in 2015 in connection with the amendments to the Tax Code. The cost of excisable goods will slightly increase in connection with these amendments.

"However, naturally, the expansion of the list of excisable goods, increase of the excise tax on transport and formation of a new framework for road tax will have a positive impact on the budget execution," said Aliyev.

The import of vehicles to Azerbaijan decreased by 41.3 percent and stood at $841.9 million as of 2014, imports of wood and wood materials - 53.84 percent ($128.9 million), products made of ferrous metal - 10.35 percent ($1,015,600,000), electric equipment - 6.34 percent ($2,583,400,000), wheat - 25.64 percent ($293.94 million), cement - 30.17 percent ($106.6 million).

Azerbaijan's foreign trade turnover with 150 countries stood at $31.02 billion in 2014, which is 10.58 percent less than in 2013.

Azerbaijan carried out export operations worth $21.8 billion and import operations - $9.18 billion - in Jan.-Dec. 2014.

Italy became the main foreign trade partner of Azerbaijan as of 2014. The trade turnover with this country totaled $5.1 billion or 16.37 percent of the total volume of the country's trade operations.

Italy is followed by Germany - $2.6 billion (8.48 percent), Indonesia - $2.05 billion (6.59 percent), Russia - $1.95 billion (6.3 percent) and Israel - $ 1.8 billion (5.77 percent). Israel outstripped France in December which ranked 6th.

The share of the mentioned countries in Azerbaijan's total trade turnover is 4.51 percent.

Edited by SI

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Follow the author on Twitter: @AzadHasanli

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