Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct.9
By Azad Hasanli - Trend:
International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasts increase of current account surplus of Azerbaijan to 10.4 percent of Azerbaijani GDP by 2015, said the updated report on the prospects for the world economy development World Economic Outlook, published on the foundation's Web site Oct.8.
In 2013 the figure was 17 percent of GDP, and the fund expects it to decline to 14.6 percent of Azerbaijani GDP by the end of 2014, according to the report. In addition, decrease of the current account surplus to 7.2 percent of Azerbaijani GDP is expected in 2019.
In 2014, the current account deficit is expected in the CIS countries and Georgia, except Russia (2.7 percent), Azerbaijan (14.6 percent), Kazakhstan (0.3 percent) and Uzbekistan (0.1 percent), and except Russia (3.1 percent), Azerbaijan (10.4 percent) and Uzbekistan (0.5 percent) in 2015, according to the IMF.
Thus, in 2014 and 2015 the current account deficit in Armenia is expected to be 7.7 percent and 7.3 percent of GDP, respectively, in Belarus - 8.5 and 7.4 percent, in Georgia - 8.4 and 7 9 percent, in Kyrgyzstan - 14.2 and 14.8 percent, in Moldova - 6.2 and 7.3 percent, in Tajikistan - 4.7 and 3.6 percent, in Turkmenistan - 1.9 and 0.3 percent. In Ukraine, the current account deficit in 2014 and 2015 is expected to reach 2.5 percent of GDP, the deficit in Kazakhstan is predicted only in 2015 at the level of 0.7 percent.
The current account surplus in the first half of 2014 amounted to $6.4 billion, which is a 4.5 percent decrease compared to the same period last year, according to the balance of payments, published by the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA). The current account surplus of the oil and gas sector in Azerbaijan for the period totaled $10.3 billion.
At the same time, the current account surplus of oil and gas sector fully covers the current account deficit in the non-oil sector of $3.9 billion, according to the document.
The overall balance of payments surplus was $4.4 billion, which is an increase of 1.88 times compared to the same period last year.