BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 28
By Matanat Nasibova – Trend:
A 23-percent growth was observed in the non-oil sector of the Azerbaijani economy in the first quarter of 2020, while the share of the sector in GDP reached 63.3 percent, Trend reports referring to the Central Bank of Azerbaijan.
Compared to other spheres, higher growth was observed in spheres such as industry, agriculture, information and communication.
In the first quarter of 2020, a 28-percent growth in the tobacco production sector and 10.5-percent-growth in the textile industry compared to the first quarter of 2019 were observed.
Furthermore, 36.7-percent growth was observed in the production of pharmaceutical products, 25.7-percent growth - in the chemical industry, 7.3-percent growth - in the production of cars, trailers and semiconductors, 2.1-percent growth - in the metallurgical industry, and 2.1-percent growth - in the production of beverages.
The production of consumer durables in industry grew by 17.1 percent, and the production of non-durable goods - by 20 percent in the first quarter of 2020 compared to the first quarter of last year.
In the structure of production, 86.3 percent accounted for industrial products, while 13.7 percent - industrial services.
The agricultural production increased by 3.7 percent, including livestock production - 3.2 percent, crop production - 13.4 percent.
According to the Central Bank’s survey on monitoring the real sector, the average index of business confidence in industry and services for the entire first quarter of 2020 remains positive.
However, there was a sharp decline in the index in March and it was negative in the trade sector.
In turn, the growth of production in the textile industry, in the production of food products and drinks was positive during the first two months of the year. The low growth dynamics was observed in the production of plastic products, metallurgy and the production of building materials while indicators in machine building were positive over the past two months of the quarter.
Although the indicators of economic activity in the production of furniture, household goods and electrical equipment were positive in the first two months of the quarter, there was a sharp decline in the production in March 2020.
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