BAKU, Azerbaijan, Nov. 6
By Eldar Janashvili – Trend:
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) expects Azerbaijan’s GDP to increase up to 2.8 percent as of 2019, Trend reports on Nov. 6 referring to the bank’s report.
“The country's GDP will grow by 2.4 percent in 2020,” the report said.
“The economic recovery in Azerbaijan, which began in 2018, continues in 2019,” the report said. “So, from January through August 2019, GDP growth rate accelerated from 1.4 percent to 2.4 percent year on year, which was facilitated by the strengthening of the non-oil sector, which grew from 1.9 to three percent over the reporting period.”
In general, the growth indicators in the non-oil and gas industry, agriculture and services sector at the end of the third quarter were positive. Credit activity is also recovering. The inflation rate remained at a low level of 2.6 percent from January through August 2019, which allowed the Central Bank to reduce the rate by 200 basis points.
“The inflation rate decreased on average from 12.9 percent in 2017 to 2.3 percent in 2018 amid a stable exchange rate supported by rising oil prices,” a previous report said.
EBRD also paid attention to the stability of the Azerbaijani economy to external challenges, supported by a great liquidity buffer, as the total official foreign exchange reserves of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan and the assets of the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan are approximately equal to the country's GDP.
In general, the GDP growth of most of the countries of Central Asia, as well as Eastern Europe and the Caucasus, from January through June 2019 exceeded the EBRD's expectations.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is a leading investor in Azerbaijan. It has invested about 3.3 billion euros in various sectors of the economy such as energy, infrastructure, banking, industry and commerce.
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