Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 6
By Sara Israfilbayova – Trend:
The assets of the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) amounted to 66.07 billion manats in 2018, which is 7.6 percent more than the same period of the preceding year, as stated in the financial statements of SOFAZ for 2018, confirmed by the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) international audit company, Trend reports.
The report reads that the current assets of the fund amounted to 62.19 billion manats, which was 16.4 percent more than in 2017.
The capital of the fund during the reporting period amounted to 65.06 billion manats, which was 7 percent more than in 2017. Capital investments amounted to 33.7 billion manats, which was 17.8 percent more than in the preceding year, while retained earnings amounted to 30.6 billion manats and were 3.4 percent more than in 2017.
Moreover, the liabilities of SOFAZ amounted to 1.01 billion manats in 2018, which was 1.8 times more than in 2017.
During the aforementioned period, the fund’s interest income amounted to 86.04 million manats (a 3.4-fold decrease), dividend income to 266.52 million manats (an increase of 32.8 percent), rental income to 167.24 million manats (a 1.8-fold increase), and income from gold bullion to 32.5 million manats (a 5.2-fold decrease).
Meanwhile, SOFAZ's net loss amounted to 768.44 million manats, which was 61.6 percent less than in 2017, and operating loss to 703.36 million manats, which was almost 3 times less than in 2017.
SOFAZ was established in 1999 with assets of $271 million.
Based on SOFAZ's regulations, its funds may be used for the construction and reconstruction of strategically important infrastructure facilities, as well as solving important national problems.
The main goals of the State Oil Fund include accumulation of resources and placement of assets abroad in order to minimize the negative effect to the economy, prevention of "Dutch disease" to some extent, promotion of resource accumulation for future generations and support of current social and economic processes in Azerbaijan.
($1=1.7 AZN on August 6)
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