BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 18
By Zeyni Jafarov - Trend:
During the outgoing week, the Azerbaijani State Statistics Committee released the statistics data for the first quarter of 2021.
The volume of Azerbaijan's GDP from January through March 2021 decreased in relation to the corresponding indicator of 2020 by 1.3 percent and amounted to 18.9 billion manat ($11.1 billion).
From January through March 2021, the state budget revenues amounted to nearly 5.74 billion manat ($3.38 billion), the state budget expenditure made up over 5.5 billion manat ($3.2 million).
By late March 2021, a surplus of 212.7 million manat ($125.1 million) has formed in the Azerbaijani state budget. Thus, the state budget surplus equaled 1.1 percent of Azerbaijan's GDP.
Moody's international rating agency has disclosed the forecast this year that Azerbaijan's real GDP growth will amount to 3.5 percent in 2021 and it will be supported by the mitigation of coronavirus-related restrictions, as well as an increase in oil and gas production.
During the outgoing week Azerbaijani Minister of Economy Mikayil Jabbarov received Turkish ambassador Erkan Ozoral, whose diplomatic term in Azerbaijan has come to an end.
"Turkey is one of the main trade partners of Azerbaijan," Jabbarov said. "The preferential trade agreement signed between the governments of Azerbaijan and Turkey will contribute to the expansion of bilateral trade ties. Turkey is a leader among the countries investing in Azerbaijan's non-oil sector."
Moreover, there was an increase in gold prices in Azerbaijan and a decrease in the rate of the Azerbaijani manat in relation to the currencies of the main partner countries during the outgoing week.