Azerbaijan, Baku, March 19 / Trend, I. Khalilova /
In Jan.-Feb. 2013, the volume of industrial production [produced goods and rendered services of industrial character] in Azerbaijan amounted to 5.71 billion manat, or 0.4 percent less than in 2012, the State Statistics Committee said today.
In the private sector, the volume of industrial production fell by 2.6 percent, reaching 80.7 percent of total industrial production compared to Jan.-Feb. 2012. While 90.5 percent fall to production of industrial goods, 9.5 percent - for industrial services.
Production in the non-oil industrial sector increased by 3.9 percent, while the oil sector fell by 1.4 percent.
During the reporting period, the volume of production in the mining industry declined by 2.6 percent to 4.3 billion manat with weight of 75.3 percent of total industrial production. Oil output fell by 3.6 percent to 7.2 million tons, and natural gas production for consumption decreased by 5 percent, to 2.9 billion cubic meters.
Output in the manufacturing sector amounted to 1.027 billion manat, increasing by 15.5 percent per year. In January-February, there was an increase in production of computers and other electronic equipment by 2.03 times, furniture (3.6 times), in the printing industry (78.6 times), leather, leather goods and shoes - twofold, pharmaceutical products (99.8 percent), tobacco (62.3 percent), clothing (57.5 percent), construction materials (55.2 percent), etc.
Also, there was an increase of 2.2 percent in food production. The production of sugar and granulated sugar in the country grew by 32.4 percent to 77,700 tons, oil - by 25.5 percent (11,000 tons), cheese and curd - by 3.5 percent (7,900 tons), jam and marmalade - by 16.8 percent (1,700 tons), beer - by 3.7 times (377,000 decalitres), soft drinks - by 34.3 percent (2 million decalitres).
The share of production, distribution and supply of electricity, gas and steam in the total industrial production hit 6.2 percent (an increase of 1.1 percent) and in the water sector, wastewater treatment - 0.5 percent (1.4 percent decrease).
The official exchange rate is 0.7848 AZN/USD on March 19.