Foreign trade of Azerbaijan ( january-september 2011)

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.

Like previous years, the main item of Azerbaijan's export was oil and oil products.

Exports of crude oil and petroleum products, natural gas and electricity in January-September 2011

Source: State Statistics Committee

Most of the exports of Azerbaijan or 86.73 percent in the nine months accounted for the export of crude oil. In January-September, was exported crude oil worth $17.125 billion, exceeding the figure for the same period last year by 26.21 percent.

During the reporting period, oil products were exported in amount of $1.1 billion (an increase of the year at 14.94 percent), accounting for 5.6 percent of total exports.

Azerbaijan exported chemicals amounting to $77.37 million in January-September, which is more by 2.29 times compared to the same period 2010. The figure makes up 0.39 percent of total exports. Azerkimya Production Unit has increased the export of the main types of products produced by the enterprise to Turkey -- polyethylene, propylene, isopropyl alcohol, propylene glycol, and others.

More than 50 percent of all export products is exported to the Turkish market.

Main products exported from Azerbaijan

Source: State Customs Committee

In this period, the highest amount of export fell on Italy. Thus, during the reported period Azerbaijan exported commodities to Italy totaling $5 bln which makes up 35.77 % of total exports. Mainly oil and oil products are exported to this country. Italy is followed by France ($1.56 bln) and USA ($1.3 bln). Italy has maintained its leading position since 2008 excluding early three months. Turkey took a lead in January and U.S. in February and March 2008.

In January-September 2011 the traditional domination of three countries in import seems to be as: Russia ($1.223.6 bln), Turkey ($889.08 mln) and Germany ($650.26 mln).

Most of Azerbaijan's imports or 31.45 percent during the reporting period accounted for the imports of machines, equipment, electric vehicles and their spare parts. In January-September, the machinery and equipment import amounted to $2.16 billion, exceeding the figure for the same period of the last year by 83.03 percent.

Also the country imported vehicles and their spare parts worth $1.191.9 billion with a growth of 98.54 percent and with share in total imports - 17.35 percent.

The import of foods in the first nine months included sugar in the amount of $114.63 million (10.84 percent down; 1.67 percent of total import), butter in the amount of $87.88 million (1.66 percent up; 1.28 percent), meat in the amount of $15.4 million (18.74 percent up; 0.22 percent), and milk in the amount of $7.03 million (3.77 percent up; 0.1 percent).

In January-September, Azerbaijan imported flour worth $57.17 million, which constitutes 0.83 percent of total imports and exceeds the figure of the same period in 2010 by 56.9 times.

Grain imports increased by 6.27 percent in nine months to $196.8 million, constituting 2.86 percent of the country's total imports.

In general, during the reporting period, $774.48 million of food products were imported (increasing by 16.26 percent year on year), constituting 11.27 percent of the country's total imports.

Main products imported to Azerbaijan

According to the State Customs Committee, Azerbaijan's foreign trade turnover with CIS countries in January-September amounted to $4.302.86 billion or 16.17 percent of the total volume of foreign trade turnover of Azerbaijan. Exports to the CIS countries for the period increased by 1.72 times and totaled $2.439.8 billion (12.36 percent of total exports) and imports - increased by 31.6 percent and totaled $1.863 billion (27.32 percent of total imports). Thus, the black ink of import-export operations with CIS countries amounted to $576.8 mln.

In total, 6,895 legal entities (3,458) and physical entities (3,437) participated in the foreign trade operations during this period.

The share of public sector in exports made up $18.86 bln (95.5 percent), private sector held $0.78 bln (3.95 percent), share of physical entities comprised $0.1 bln (0.5 percent).

In the import operations, $2.52 billion (38.68 percent) accounted for the public sector, $4.02 billion - private (58.5 percent) and $0.32 billion - the share of physical entities.