BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan. 27
By Eldar Janashvili - Trend:
Standard & Poor's international rating agency expects Azerbaijan’s nominal GDP to rise from 79 billion manat to 85 billion manat (from $46 billion to $50 billion) in 2020-2023 while the average annual forecast - at 2.3 percent, Trend reports referring to Standard & Poor's report.
Real GDP growth which slowed up to 1.7 percent in 2020 is expected to jump up to 3.2 percent in 2021 and then reach 2.2 percent.
According to the S&P forecast, the volume of GDP per capita will grow from $4,700 to $4,900 per person with an average annual increase of 1.5 percent. At the same time, the growth of real GDP per capita according to the forecasts of the agency in 2020-2023 will also show growth, having slowed down up to 0.9 percent in 2020, will jump up to 2.4 percent in 2021 and then reach 1.4 percent.
The volume of external liquid assets will exceed the volume of external debt by 105 percent of payments on the current account in 2020 and on average by 112 percent in 2021-2023. Revenues obtained from the current account remain stably high at 51+ percent of Azerbaijan’s GDP.
The government’s net assets for the next four years will average 55 percent of Azerbaijan’s GDP. The government’s expanded debt as a percentage of GDP will remain stable at an average of less than 33 percent of GDP in 2020-2023.
The agency also predicts gradual strengthening of the Azerbaijani financial system amid increasing economic growth rates and the development of political institutions.
Standard & Poor's international agency confirmed Azerbaijan’s sovereign credit rating at BB + / B based on big external assets of the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan, fiscal policy and low state share of the country.
(1 USD = 1.7 AZN on Jan. 27)
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