BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 22
By Zeyni Jafarov - Trend:
During the outgoing week, the Azerbaijani State Statistics Committee disclosed the data on the state budget for January 2021, Trend reports.
In January 2021, the revenues of the Azerbaijani state budget amounted to more than 2.3 billion manat ($1.3 billion) while expenses - 1.2 billion manat ($705 million).
As a result, as of late January 2021, a surplus of 1.08 billion manat ($635 million) was formed in the budget and equaled 17.4 percent of Azerbaijan's GDP.
Some 346.5 million manat ($203.8 million) were transferred from foreign enterprises and organizations to Azerbaijan's fixed capital in January 2021, which is 10.6 percent less compared to January 2020.
In accordance with the report, 97.3 percent or 337.1 million manat ($198.3 million) of funds allocated to the fixed assets through the funds of foreign countries and international organizations belongs to investors from Turkey, Russia, the UK, the US, Norway, Japan, India, Malaysia, and Iran.
Moreover, the Central Bank of Azerbaijan during the outgoing week disclosed a monetary policy review, from which it became known that inflation remained below the level of the four percent target range in Azerbaijan in 2020. Thus, 12-month inflation in 2020 amounted to 2.6 percent and this is below the level of the target corridor announced by the Central Bank.
The official rate of the Azerbaijani manat to the US dollar for the past year was set on the basis of the average rate for interbank transactions. The daily rate of the Azerbaijani manat against the US dollar amounted to 1.7 manat ($1). The foreign currency purchase rates set by the banks were close to the official rate.
Operations of Azerbaijani banks on the purchase and sale of foreign currency in cash amounted to $5.2 billion in 2020, which is by 13.3 percent less compared to 2019.
According to the CBA, the biggest share in the transactions on the purchase and sale of the foreign currency fell on the dollar - in the amount of $4.5 billion (86.7 percent).
The Turkish-Azerbaijani business forum was held in Turkey’s Ankara city during the outgoing week. Azerbaijani Minister of Economy Mikayil Jabbarov participated in the forum.
“The cooperation between Azerbaijan and Turkey is being strengthened constantly and this very effectively affects the development of bilateral economic ties between the two fraternal countries,” Jabbarov said.
The minister of the economy also stressed that Azerbaijan, headed by the president, will improve the territories liberated from the Armenian occupation, and this will open up great opportunities for entrepreneurs of the two countries.
“The work in this sphere has already begun,” Jabbarov said.
During the outgoing week, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Finance announced the volume of the country's public debt by early 2021. The external public debt amounted to $8.8 billion, which is equivalent to 14.9 billion manat ($8.8 billion) or 20.7 percent of GDP. The domestic national debt was equal to 1.9 billion manat ($1.1 billion) or 2.7 percent of GDP.
An online briefing "Results of 2020" of the State Service for Antimonopoly Policy and Consumer Market Control under the Azerbaijani Ministry of Economy was held during the outgoing week.
The Ministry of Economy has carried out quite extensive work to create additional stocks of a number of products of the relevant categories from the main food products in Azerbaijan, excess stocks of products belonging to this category have been created in the country.
The food and construction products are being monitored in Azerbaijan and no violation related to artificial price hike has been revealed.
The outgoing week was also remembered by the strengthening of the Azerbaijani manat against the euro and the ruble and various changes in prices for precious metals.
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Economy Department of Trend News Agency