Azerbaijan, Baku, November 22 / Trend, A. Akhundov /
2012 is expected to be a successful year for the Azerbaijani economy and a continuation of the positive trends observed in several recent years, Economic Development Minister Shahin Mustafayev reported on Tuesday. He was speaking at the Parliament's plenary meeting devoted to examination of the draft state budget for 2012 and three following years.
"The financial and economic problems the Eurozone countries are faced with, the fact that the pre-crisis economic status has not so far been restored in the US and the negative changes on the financial markets increase the probability of a second wave of global economic crisis. Nevertheless, the Azerbaijani economy will continue to develop despite the unfavourable outside economic environment," Mr Mustafayev said.
The pace of economic growth in Azerbaijan will be 5.7 per cent in 2012 and the average pace of annual economic growth of 6.3 per cent is likely to be reached in 2015, he noted.
"GDP per capita will increase up to 5963 manat in 2015 against 4744 manat in 2012 so the position of Azerbaijan amongst countries with a high average per capita income will be strengthened," he noted.
In 2012, the exchange rate of manat to US dollar is forecast to be 0.79 manat/$1, and the inflation rate is forecast as six per cent.
"Next year, the state budget deficit's share in GDP will be 1.3 per cent and the upper limit of foreign debt is two billion manat," Mr Mustafayev said.
Proceeding from forecasts made by international financial and economic organisations and oil producing countries, oil prices prepared for the macroeconomic indicators and the state budget-2012 were calculated at $80 per barrel and, as for state budgets-2013, 2014 and 2015, equivalent to $75 per barrel.
The official exchange rate on November 22 is 0.7865 AZN/USD.