Azerbaijan, Baku, April 18 /Trend A. Akhundov /
The Azerbaijani State Customs Committee announced about increase in the volume of foreign trade operations by 8.39 percent in the first quarter of 2013 compared to the same period of last year, the Committee said on Wednesday.
Around 124 world countries were Azerbaijan's foreign trade partners for the period.
The total volume of trade turnover of the country amounted to $8.56 billion.
The surplus worth $4.14 billion was formed in foreign trade operations.
Around 3,248 legal and physical entities were involved in foreign trade operations over this period, of which 2,318 are legal entities and 930 physical entities.
The export operations totaled $6.35 billion in Jan.-March, or 8.65 percent more compared to the same period of 2012.
The share of public sector in exports totaled $6.01 billion (94.65 percent), private - $318.3 million (5 percent), the share of physical entities - $14.95 million (0.23 percent).
As of the first quarter, imports amounted to $2.21 billion, or 7.64 percent less compared to the same period of 2012.
The share of public sector in import operations amounted to $642.85 million (29 percent), private sector - $1.44 billion (65.29 percent) and physical entities - $120.02 million (5.43 percent).
As of January-March, 961 goods were exported from Azerbaijan, while 4,432 goods were imported.