Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 12
By Emin Aliyev - Trend: The tendency of substituting the oil sector part of Azerbaijan's economy with a non-oil one will continue until around 2017, Azerbaijani Finance Minister, Samir Sharifov said on Nov. 12.
He made the remarks at a meeting of Azerbaijan's Milli Mejlis (parliament), which is discussing the 2014 budget package.
"It is expected that in the future the country's GDP will grow by 5.2 per cent, while the non-oil sector of the national economy will grow by 10 per cent. In 2014 the growth of the non-oil sector's share in the revenues of the state budget will be preserved," the minister said.
The minister informed the MPs about the state budget's basic parameters.
"The state budget revenues next year will amount to 18.38 billion manats. Budget expenditures compared to 2013 will grow by 1.6 per cent, or 213 million manats, and amount to 20.06 billion manats. The main reason for a decline in revenue for 2014 lies in reducing the transfer from the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan," Sharifov said.
According to him, most of the revenues of the state budget next year will be provided by the Azerbaijani Ministry of Taxes and the State Customs Committee (SCC).
"It is planned to transfer 7.1 billion manats to the budget through the Ministry of Taxes and 1.51 billion manats are planned to be transferred through the SCC," the minister said.
The 2014 draft state budget was drawn up taking into account all possible factors, the minister added.
"The document itself as well as the forecasts on the country's socio-economic development in 2014 and the next three years, were made up taking into account all modern economic tendencies. It is safe to say that the budget package was insured against possible negative events in the global economy," Sharifov said.
Official exchange rate for Nov. 12 is 0.7843 AZN/USD.