Baku, Azerbaijan, April 20
By Ilkin Shafiyev – Trend:
The indicators of Azerbaijan's economic growth over the past 15 years are high even by world standards, economist, doctor of economic Sciences Elshad Mammadov told Trend.
"In recent years, the country's economy has grown more than threefold. Of course, the energy sector played a key role here, however, today's issues related to the diversification of the economy and the development of the non-oil sector is one of the important tasks. This is one of the priorities of the country's macroeconomic policy," he said.
The favorable macroeconomic situation, he said, creates all the prerequisites for increasing the expenditure side of the state budget.
"Today, the expenditure side of the state budget is at the level of 25-30 percent of GDP, but there is potential for growth associated with rising energy prices and the development of the non-oil sector. This suggests that public investment can be significantly increased. I believe that the target may be 40-45 percent," Mammadov said.
Speaking about the situation with public debt, Mammadov noted that Azerbaijan has all opportunities to reduce it.
"The country's leadership has set the task in the coming years to reduce public debt to an even lower level. Today, it stands at 20 percent of GDP. I believe that this process will be carried out methodically in order to ensure the stability of macroeconomic indicators. Although Azerbaijan has significant gold and foreign exchange reserves," he stressed.