Azernews.Az

By Mirsaid Ibrahimzade

Azerbaijan’s economy could attain positive indices of growth due to successive implementation of reforms. Increasing capacity of the economy, rising competitiveness and technological innovations enabled to diminish country’s dependence on oil and gas exports.

Azerbaijan's GDP growth rate recorded 2.4 percent in January-June 2019 which is by 1.1 percent more than within the same period of 2018, the State Statistical Committee of Azerbaijan reported.

The nominal volume of GDP amounted to 37.825 billion manats ($22.25 billion) in January-June 2019.

GDP per capita amounted to 3.828 million manats ($2.251 million) in the first half of this year.

According to the State Statistics Committee, 44.6 percent of GDP recorded in January-June 2019 accounts for industrial production.

The share of industry in Azerbaijan’s GDP was 32.9 percent in 2015, 37.1 percent in 2016, 40.1 percent in 2017, and 44.2 percent in 2018.

As for industrial production, it is noteworthy that the country has ongoing State Program for the Development of Industry in Azerbaijan for 2015-2020, which envisages the modernizing the industry and enhancing its structure, rising export possibilities of non-oil sector and broadening competitive industrial goods, as well as training highly-qualified staff for new spheres.

The share of taxes in GDP was 9 percent.

Decrease in the construction sector by 11.2 percent had a noticeable impact on the deceleration in GDP growth.

The Azerbaijani government forecasts 3.2 percent GDP growth in 2019.

Considering the forecasts of other competent sources on the country’s economy in 2019, WB and EBRD predict approximately equal figures for GDP growth, 3.3 and 3.5 percent, respectively.

Forecast figures of Fitch agency coincide with predictions of EBRD on this economic indicator in 2019.

In spite of IMF forecasts that the growth rate of the Azerbaijani economy will be 3.4 percent in 2019 which is lower than EBRD’s figures, the prognoses of IMF and WB regarding 2020 year, look more promising than expectations of other sources. IMF and WB prognosticate 3.1 and 3.5 percent GDP growth, respectively, while ADB expects the growth rate at just 2.7 percent.

In 2018, GDP growth in Azerbaijan amounted to 1.4 percent.

Taking into account monetary terms, the country's GDP in 2018 reached 79.8 billion manat, which is higher than forecasts by almost 15 percent. The main share of GDP fell on the non-oil sector with 46.89 billion manats. The share of the oil sector, exceeding the forecast figures by 51.2 percent, amounted to 32.9 billion manats.

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Mirsaid Ibrahimzade is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @MirsaidIbrahim1

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