Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 21
By Anvar Mammadov – Trend:
The surplus of the payments balance of Azerbaijan amounted to $1.1 billion in the first nine months of 2017, said Chairman of the Central Bank (CBA) Elman Rustamov.
He made the remarks Nov. 21 during discussions of the 2018 state budget in the Azerbaijani parliament.
The increase in oil prices also played a role in improving the balance of payments, said Rustamov.
“However, the improvement depended not only on oil prices. The volume of imports has decreased by more than twofold as compared to the maximum indicator, and the forecast is $6.5 billion as of late 2017,” he noted.
The positive impact on the balance of payments also had an increase in non-oil exports, which rose by 31 percent in the first nine months of 2017. Positive trends along with the trade balance were also observed in the balance of services, while a surplus was observed in the tourism services sector,” said the CBA head.
As a result, the country’s strategic currency reserves increased by 12 percent and the Central Bank’s foreign currency reserves – by 31 percent in the current year, he added.