Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 6
By Elchin Mehdiyev – Trend:
Slowdown of the global economy’s development, deterioration of the macroeconomic indicators affected Azerbaijani economy as well, the country’s parliament speaker Ogtay Asadov said.
He made the remarks at a plenary session of Azerbaijani Parliament during the discussion of the country’s draft state budget and the concept of socio-economic development for 2017 and the next three years.
He said that a sharp drop in oil prices on the global market, reduction of Azerbaijan’s foreign currency revenues made it necessary to amend the monetary policy of the country’s Central Bank.
“Strategy of socio-economic development implemented under the leadership of President Ilham Aliyev made it possible to minimize the negative impact of these processes on the country,” the speaker said. “Despite the existing issues, Azerbaijani economy maintained its stability, and a real growth is projected in the country's economy according to the draft state budget for 2017 and the next three years.”
Further development of Azerbaijan’s non-oil sector through gradual weakening of oil dependence of the country’s economy will become the main factor for this growth, Asadov said.
“In accordance with the forecasts, there is a decrease in the parameters of the revenue and expenditure parts of Azerbaijan’s state budget for 2017 compared to the previous year, however, as in previous years, the budget will remain socially oriented,” said the speaker. “Though the budget’s expenditures will decrease, no reduction of costs for the social security, state programs and equivalent expenditures is provided.”
Asadov went on to add that there are enough funds in Azerbaijan’s state budget for strengthening the country's defense power and national security.
“The state budget for the next year provides for an increase in revenues from the non-oil sector through the line of Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Taxes and a decrease in transfers of the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ),” he noted. “The transfer size will be reduced by 1.5 billion manats and amount to 6.1 billion manats.”
In accordance with the draft concept of Azerbaijan’s socio-economic development for 2017 and the next three years, real GDP growth in the country is forecast at the level of one percent in 2017, while the growth of non-oil GDP is expected at 2.5 percent.