Azerbaijan, Baku, May 21 / Trend E. Aliyev /
According to the results of monitoring the real sector of the economy of Azerbaijan held by the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA), the country's business confidence index (BCI) grew in the first quarter of 2013, the CBA stated in a report on monetary policy recently released.
'The reason for the BCI improvement was the growth of industrial production and trade sales. At the same time, the monitoring results show optimistic expectations on economic activity', the report says.
According to the CBA, BCI in the industry sector in the first quarter of 2013 amounted to 8.6 per cent increasing by five per cent compared to the same period of 2012.
BCI in trade in January-March this year also demonstrated an impressive growth whereby it increased by 7.1 per cent compared to the same period of 2012, amounting to 12.5 per cent.
'Positive expectations were observed in Azerbaijan in the food industry, building materials production, weaving and trading of furniture and household appliances. This also affected the reduction of stocks of unsold products. Overall, the results of the monitoring of the real sector demonstrated a steady increase in the number of enterprises showing the growth of production and sales', the report says.