Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

The total amount of foreign direct investment made in Azerbaijan's economy amounted to $3.9 billion in the first half of 2014, some 85.3 percent of which was made in the oil and gas sector.

This was noted at the balance of payments recently published by the Central Bank of Azerbaijan.

CBA said these investments were used to finance major oil and gas projects in Azerbaijan.

The bank also predicts that the volume of direct investments in Azerbaijan's non-oil sector amounted to $569 million, which accounted for 14.7 percent of the total amount of direct investments made in the country in the first half year.

The document also noted Azerbaijan's net financial assets amounted to $6 billion in January-June 2014, which was generated through the direct investments made abroad ($367.2 million), portfolio investments ($104.8 million) and other investments ($5.574 billion).

Around $266.8 million of direct investments were made by Azerbaijan in the oil and gas sector, and $100.4 million in other sectors.

Other investments include trade loans and advances ($2.923 billion), loans and advances ($56.9 million), deposits and cash ($2.594 billion).

Azerbaijan's commitments were made n the amount of $4.552 billion in the first half of this year, some $2.071 billion of which accounted for direct investments, and $1.748 billion for portfolio investments.

CBA also said the total value of transactions carried out by Azerbaijan with foreign countries on secondary income in the first half of 2014 amounted to $1.8 billion, 48.1 percent of which falls on receipt in the country.

Some 92.7 percent ($1.7 billion) of the total receipts on secondary income accounted for remittances of the individuals carried out from foreign countries to Azerbaijan, 3.7 percent accounted for the cost of humanitarian goods imported into the country, 3.6 percent - other income in the reported period.

Surplus arising from transactions with secondary income of the country in total amounted to $66.2 million.

CBA went on to add that the surplus of the current account totaled $6.4 billion in January-June 2014, decreasing by 4.5 percent compared to the same period of last year.

The surplus of current account of Azerbaijan's oil and gas sector amounted to $10.3 billion in the reporting period.

The total balance of payments surplus made up $4.4 billion, increasing 1.88 times compared to the same period of last year.

The analysis of the balance of payments on sectors showed that, as in previous years, foreign trade operation figures in the oil and gas sector were in the black, while the non-oil sector reflected red ink in January-June 2014.

The total foreign trade turnover volume amounted to $20.1 billion in January-June, while the foreign trade balance equaled $11.1 billion.

Azerbaijan maintained trade relations with 136 countries during the reporting period. While 7.7 percent of trade turnover accounted for the CIS countries, the other 92.3 percent applied to foreign countries.

Azerbaijan has been involved in intensive trade with Italy, Turkey, Great Britain, Indonesia, Germany, U.S., Russia, Israel, France, and Japan. Some 69.1 percent of export-import operations in Azerbaijan accounted for these countries.