Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 15
By Anvar Mammadov – Trend:
International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasts Azerbaijan’s economic growth in 2017 at 1.4 percent, according to the IMF report published Sept. 15.
This is while the previous IMF forecast on the country’s GDP growth was 1 percent.
The GDP growth of Azerbaijan is forecast at 2.3 percent in 2018, 2.9 percent in 2019 and 2.5 percent in 2020, said the report.
IMF forecasts 2.4 percent decrease in Azerbaijan’s GDP in 2016, or 0.6 percentage points lower than the organization’s previous forecast.
IMF analysts believe the country’s nominal GDP will be 55.31 billion Azerbaijani manats in 2016, and will increase to 59.74 billion manats in 2017 and reach 67.84 billion manats by 2020.
Official exchange rate on Sept. 15 is 1.6375 AZN/USD.
Azerbaijan’s current account surplus will account for 0.7 percent of the country’s GDP in 2016, 3.1 percent of GDP in 2017, 9 percent of GDP in 2018, 9.6 percent of GDP in 2019, and 10.4 percent of GDP by 2020, according to the IMF report.
IMF office was opened in Baku in 1992. The organization allocated $577.3 million worth of loans to Azerbaijan in 1995-2005 to support the economic reform programs.
Azerbaijan has fully repaid the IMF loans.
Azerbaijan has seen no need for financial resources of IMF since 2005. Therefore, the two parties have been cooperating in consultations and technical assistance missions on key areas of macroeconomic policy since 2006.
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