BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 1
By Zeyni Jafarov - Trend:
The recovery trend in the Azerbaijani economy is gaining momentum, Gulnara Khaidarshina, Deputy Head of the Research Department of Gazprombank, told Trend on July 1.
“The growth rate of the economy was observed again in April, which reached about three percent and accelerated up to four percent in May,” Khaidarshina said.
“The economy grew by 0.8 percent during the first five months of this year, while the decline in the fourth quarter of last year reached 6.2 percent,” the deputy head of the research department added.
"The growth of the Azerbaijani economy was facilitated by the recovery in the non-oil sector due to the abolition of strict quarantine measures and fiscal incentives," Khaidarshina said.
“Thus, the non-oil sector of the Azerbaijani economy grew by 4.5 percent as of early June, which made it possible to compensate for the decline (by 6.7 percent) in the oil and gas sector of the country,” deputy head of the research department added.
Khaidarshina expects that the recovery trend in the economy will intensify in the near future and this will also be facilitated by the exhaustion of the "high base" effect of hydrocarbon prices in the first quarter of 2020.
"Given the favorable situation in hydrocarbon prices, the increase in supplies through the TAP gas pipeline launched in November 2020 with an export potential of 10 billion cubic meters per year, the restoration of activity in the non-oil sector and the implementation of large-scale infrastructure projects in the Azerbaijani territories liberated from the Armenian occupation, we expect Azerbaijan’s economic growth will reach 5.1 percent in 2021," deputy head of the research department added.
Azerbaijan's GDP increased by 0.8 percent from January through May 2021 compared to the same period of last year and reached 31.5 billion manat ($18.5 billion).
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