BAKU, Azerbaijan, Oct. 24
Trend:
Azerbaijani State Customs Committee published this week the monthly report disclosing the country’s nine-month foreign trade turnover, Trend reports.
According to the committee, the foreign trade turnover from January through September 2020 amounted to $18.4 billion, which is 27.1 percent less compared to the same period of 2019.
“In the structure of foreign trade turnover, exports made up over $10.5 billion, showing a decrease of 28.8 percent on an annualized basis”, the report said. “At the same time, imports to Azerbaijan in the reporting period of 2020 amounted to $7.82 billion, having decreased by 24.6 percent compared to the same period of last year. The balance of foreign trade turnover decreased by 38.6 percent on an annualized basis, but remained positive, amounting to $2.75 billion.”
Furthermore, this week Chairman of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) Elman Rustamov commented on the economic situation in the country.
According to him, the annual inflation in Azerbaijan is below three percent, and the national currency maintained its stability, unlike the currencies of other countries. Besides, both industry and agriculture in the underlying sectors of GDP showed significant growth.
Speaking about the impact of hostilities’ outbreak in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict zone on the economic situation, Rustamov stressed that Azerbaijan has enough resources to quickly restore economic growth after the completion of military operations.
The chairman also took part in a meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with the participation of the chairmen of the Central Banks of the Caucasus and Central Asian region in the format of a video conference.
“The situation that developed due to the pandemic had an impact on the Azerbaijani economy, however, thanks to the proactive anti-crisis measures, macroeconomic stability in the country was preserved and a deeper recession was prevented,” said the CBA chairman.
In addition to the above, this week the Azerbaijani Ministry of Finance disclosed the state budget figures. Revenues of the state budget of Azerbaijan amounted to 17.9 billion manat in the past nine months of 2020, while the expenditures - 18.6 billion manat. Thus, a deficit of 677.6 million manat was formed in the budget.
This week, Baku Stock Exchange (BSE) announced growth in number of its participants. So, the IBA-Invest company has been admitted to BSE’s membership upon request. Thus, the number of investment companies included in the Baku Stock Exchange has reached eight.
Besides, Azerbaijani oil prices showed fluctuation, and the national currency manat’s rate to euro decreased.
Zeyni Jafarov
Department of Economics at Trend News Agency