Non-oil exports increase markedly
By Mirsaid Ibrahimzade
Agriculture, tourism, information and communication technologies, and processing industries, which are considered basic priority areas in the development of the non-oil sector in Azerbaijan, bear fruits of the strategy of diversification of the country’s economy. Positive indicators and high growth rates favorably affect the state of economy and make it more resistant to external shocks.
In the first half of 2019, Azerbaijan exported non-oil products worth $979 million, which is 15 percent higher than in the same period of 2018, the Center for Economic Reforms Analysis and Communication said in a message.
According to the Center, for the reporting period, the main share of the non-oil exports was taken by tomatoes ($138.1 million, a decline of 1.35 percent). Other export products included raw cotton ($74.9 million, an increase of 2.64 times), gold ($70. 4 million, a growth by 16 percent), peeled hazelnuts ($67.9 million, an increase of 1.9 times).
Moreover, Azerbaijan exported electricity ($51.9 million, a decline of 4.9 percent), polyethylene ($41.9 million, a decrease of 16. 9 percent), polypropylene ($36.2 million, an increase of 72.4 times), methanol ($31.3 million, a growth by 4.8 times) and cherry and sweet cherry ($29.7 million, an increase of 10.8 percent).
In the first half of 2019, the top five countries for the import of Azerbaijani non-oil products included Russia - $355 million (a growth by 10.9 percent), Turkey - $213.3 million (an increase of 18.4 percent), Georgia - $85.4 million (a growth by 15.2 percent), Switzerland - $73.5 million (an increase of 6 percent) and Italy - $30.5 million (an increase of 2.3 times).
Azerbaijan's non-oil exports reached $1.689 billion in 2018, which is 10 percent or $151 million more compared to 2017.
The steps made for diversification of the economy and the state program “Socio-economic development of regions of Azerbaijan in 2014-2018” made huge contribution to the non-oil sector, because main potential for production of non-oil products is concentrated in the regions of Azerbaijan.
In addition, the increasing number of plants operating in the non-oil sector promises very good prospects for Azerbaijan to diversify economy, reduce dependency on oil and gas sector and increase the inflow of foreign currency into the country.
SOCAR Carbamide plant is the biggest project in the non-oil sector of Azerbaijan. Its total cost is about 800 million euros, 197 million euros of which were allocated from the state budget of Azerbaijan, 500 million euros were provided via borrowed funds, and 80-85 million euros were allocated from tax and other deductions to the budget, which SOCAR paid for from its own funds.
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Mirsaid Ibrahimzade is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @MirsaidIbrahim1
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