Baku, Azerbaijan, July 25
By Anvar Mammadov - Trend:
Moody's rating agency expects slight growth in Azerbaijan’s real GDP in 2017. However, the agency didn’t provide exact forecasts for the country’s GDP growth.
Last week, Azerbaijan’s State Statistical Committee reported that year-over-year GDP contracted 3.2 percent in the second quarter of 2016 following a 3.6 percent decline in the first quarter and a 6.5 percent contraction in the fourth quarter of 2015, said Moody’s report.
Year-over-year economic activity in non-oil sectors contracted 6.1 percent in the first six months of the year, while the oil sector grew by 2.1 percent, according to the report.
The main driver of the decline in economic activity in Azerbaijan in the first half was the 33.6 percent contraction in construction, said Moody’s.
“Cargo transportation also contracted 2.3 percent, which was partly offset by a 13.7 percent expansion in information and communication services and 2.4 percent growth in non-oil industrial production,” said the report.
‘The data are in line with our forecast of a 3.3 percent decline in real GDP [of Azerbaijan] in 2016. We expect real GDP growth to be around 0 percent in 2017 owing to a recovery in domestic demand amid the slowdown in inflation,” said the report.
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