BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 26. The budget surplus of Azerbaijan totaled 2.4 percent of GDP from January through August 2022, up by 6.5 times against the same period of 2021, Deputy Head of Research Department, Chief CIS economist at Russia's Gazprombank Gulnara Khaidarshina told Trend.
According to her, such a significant surplus is driven by the revenue growth of 26.6 percent year on year.
"The current surplus has been caused not only by high hydrocarbon prices but also by a strong recovery trend in the non-oil and gas sector, whose eight-month value-added growth stood at 10.3 percent year on year. Meanwhile, budget expenditures exceeded the gains by 16.2 percent on an annual basis," Khaidarshina said.
As the bank representative noted, Azerbaijan's fiscal policy for 2022 will remain stimulating despite the budget's scheduled deficit reduction to 3.6 percent of GDP (last year's plan constituted 4.1 percent of GDP).
"Thus, hopefully, the state budget will return to the deficit in the second half of 2022, which is reasonable given the significance of supporting economic recovery in the face of exacerbating external risks. This is already evidenced by the accelerating growth of spending since July 2022," she added.