General economic situation in Azerbaijan ( january-september 2011)

Azerbaijan's GDP increased by 0.5 percent manat in January-September 2011 compared to the same period of 2010, the Azerbaijani State Statistics Committee reported. The current price GDP indicator reached 34.6 billion manat. The nominal GDP growth was 11.97 percent. GDP per capital hit 3.827.2 manat ($3.708.2).

Net taxes on products and imports increased by 7.1 percent, totaled 2.15 billion manat, or 6.2 percent of GDP.

The non-oil sector increased by 8.2 percent, but the oil and gas sector decreased by 7.0 percent.

The total production volume declined by 2.6 percent in all sectors of the economy and amounted to 23.1 billion manat, from which 52.8 percent of GDP (18.3 billion manat) is allocated to industrial production. In services with manufacturing value added, an increase of 6.3 percent was seen compared to the same period of 2010, reaching 9.3 billion manat.

Value added worth 2.3 billion manat was generated in agriculture, hunting, and forestry sectors - 6.6 percent of GDP, the construction sector - 2.6 billion manat (7.5 percent), transport and storage economy - 2.0 billion manat (5.7 percent), 2.5 billion manat in trade and repair of transport means - 7.2 percent, telecommunications and postal services - 599.3 million manat (1.7 percent), social and other services - 3.8 billion manat (11.0 percent).

Source: State Statistics Committee

In January-September 2011, the amount of industrial production in Azerbaijan composed AZN 23.2 billion, which is 2.3 percent less than the same period of 2010.

In January-September 2011, industrial production in the private sector amounted to 80.2 percent, decreasing by 6.9 percent as compared to the same period of the last year. About 92.1 percent accounted for manufacture of industrial products and 7.9 percent for industrial services. Production in non-oil sector increased 9.2 percent.

During the reported period, the volume of production in the extractive industry decreased by 5.8 percent, reaching 17.6 billion manat with weight of 76 percent of all industrial production. The volume of oil produced during the period decreased by 7.5 percent and totaled 35.5 million tons and natural gas production - 19.4 billion cubic meters, decreasing by 2.6 percent. The amount of production in processing industry was 4.3 billion manat, increasing by eight percent. This growth was mainly achieved through the production of food products (1.6 billion manat at an annual growth of 5.9 percent). Production of sausage in the country during the year increased by 9.1 percent to 1,400 tons, cheese and curd - by 2.2 percent (33.1 tons), meat - by 4.6 percent (192.9 tons), milk - 5.4 percent (530.2 tons), butter - 0.8 percent (15.8 tons), sugar - by 4.2 percent (236,300 tons).

According to State Statistics Committee, for the first 9 months of 2011, the country produced 2,284 kilograms of precious metals (including 211 kg in September), which is 26.8 percent higher than their production over the same period of 2010. At the same time, storage reserves of precious metals accounted to 125 kg (no change in September).

In January-September production totaled 1,280 kg of gold and 1,004 kg of silver. 126 kg of gold and 85 kg of silver were produced in September. At the same time, gold reserves totaled 68 kg (no change) and 57 kilograms of silver (also unchanged).

Thus, in January-September, agricultural output in current prices amounted to 3.876.7 billion manat, which is 7.6 percent more than in 2010. Particularly, crop production increased by 10.6 percent and livestock - by 3.7 percent.

In January-September 2011, Azerbaijan's foreign trade turnover with 148 countries comprised $26.615 billion or an increase of 31.67 percent compared to January-September 2010. The amount of export increased by 26.03 percent as compared to last year and comprised $19.75 billion, while import increased 51.12 percent totaling $6.87 billion. Azerbaijan exported 1,842 types of goods and imported 5,800. During the reported period, the indicator of export exceeded the indicator of import and thus, the black ink of import-export operations amounted to $12.88bln.

Nearly 7.576.7 bln manat was invested in the economy of Azerbaijan from all financial sources in January-September 2011 to develop economic and social spheres, an increase of 21.9% from the figures of the same period of the last year. Especially, in September 2011, 1.178.3 billion manat was invested in Azerbaijan's economy, which is 25.4 percent more than investments in September 2010.

In January-September 2011, a rise of the retail goods turnover and paid services offered to population increased by 9.6 percent compared to January-September 2010 and amounted to 15.3 billion manat. In particular, 75.4 percent accounted for retail sales, 19.7 percent - paid services. In September 2011, the prices for consumer goods and tariffs for services increased by 1.1 percent compared to the previous month, and compared to January-September 2010 grew by 8.4 percent.

According to the data provided by the State Statistics Committee of Azerbaijan, in January-September 2011, the nominal income of the population totaled AZN 21.776.3 billion which is 19.2 percent more as compared to January-September 2010. Thus, during this period, the nominal income of the population per capita increased by 17.6 percent to 2.409.9 manat. Thanks to the socially oriented programs and government decrees, the rate of income growth surpassed last year's growth rate for this indicator. So, in January-September 2010, the nominal income rose by 11.3 percent, while per capita income by 10.0 percent. In January-September 2011, the average rate of manat to the U.S. dollar was 0.79 manat per dollar, the euro, - 1.09 manat per euro, the Russian ruble - 2.58 manat per 100 ruble.