Azerbaijan, Baku, March 15 / Trend I. Khalilova /
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's balanced socioeconomic policy in 2010 has led to high economic indicators, Azerbaijani Prime Minister Artur Rasizade said today during a discussion of a report of the Cabinet of Ministers about the country's socioeconomic development last year.
The country's GDP has tripled since 2004, while the non-oil sector's share in the GDP has doubled. The share of industrial production in the GDP has grown 2.8 times, with investments in fixed capital raising 2.9 times. The average monthly salary has also increased 4.2 times, with the minimum wage jumping 7.1 times and the average pension increasing 4.7 times. The level of poverty in the country also decreased five times and 913,000 new jobs were opened.
During this period, the country's budget revenues grew by 9.3 times, while state budget expenditures by 9.5 times. Expenditures on social security and social protection grew by 5.3 times, on health - 7.8 times, education - 5 times, culture, art and information - 5.4 times, strengthening defense potential - 8.7 times, investments of state significance - 47.6 times.
"Although many countries felt the impact of the global economic crisis over the past year, our national development strategy, which is based on domestic potential, was successfully implemented, and high economic and social development rates were achieved," Rasizade said.
The Cabinet of Ministers last year focused on achieving macroeconomic stability by increasing investments in the non-oil sector and introducing modern technologies, ensuring diversification, balancing regional and entrepreneurial development, and reducing the unemployment rate.
As a result of this, during the reporting period, real GDP growth hit 5 percent, amounting to 41.6 billion manat, while in non-oil sector growth rate hit 7.9 percent. Inflation rate hit 5.7 percent. During last year 13.9 billion manat were invested by all sources, which is 32.4 percent more compared to the year before last.