Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov.27
By Azad Hasanli - Trend:
During the first nine months of 2014, strategic currency reserves of Azerbaijan increased by 7 percent, or $3.5 billion, and amounted to $53.7 billion, said the report on the monetary policy of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) in January-September 2014, released Nov.25.
The report said that the country's strategic currency reserves are enough to cover a three-year import of goods and services.
Foreign exchange reserves, which are at the disposal of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan, rose by 6.1 percent and reached $15 billion, compared to the beginning of 2014.
"As well as in previous years, the foreign position of the country was at an acceptable level," said the report. "As a result, positive processes in the foreign sector affect the dynamics of foreign exchange reserves, which continued to grow this year as well."
There activity of foreign investors remains high in the country, and during January-September 2014, the total volume of foreign investments in the economy exceeded $4.5 billion, which accounts for 29.6 percent of the total investments volume.
The country's foreign trade turnover amounted to $23.9 billion, $17.4 billion of which fell on export, and $6.5 billion on import, according to the data of the State Customs Committee for the first nine months. The foreign trade balance surplus for January-September 2014 amounted to $10.8 billion, and export exceeded import by more than a half.
More than a half (53.3 percent) of export fall on the EU countries, 3.6 percent - on the CIS, and the remaining part is sent to other countries. The European countries have provided 34.2 percent of the total volume in the structure of import, and the CIS countries by 22.4 percent.
In the reporting period, the highest growth rates were recorded in export of fruits and vegetables, beverages, tobacco, silk, glass, cement, etc. from Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan, in turn, increased the import of meat, vegetable oil, butter, sugar, tobacco, furniture, etc.
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