Azernews.Az

BAKU – An Azerbaijani official has said 2010 was a successful year for the country’s economy despite the global crisis that has been ongoing for several years.

The State Statistics Committee chairman Arif Valiyev told a news conference on Tuesday that Azerbaijan’s Gross Domestic Product increased 5 percent last year to reach 41.6 billion manats ($52 billion), which indicates that the fast-growing South Caucasus republic has overcome the crisis.

Valiyev said that whereas the oil sector growth made up 1.8 percent, the non-oil sector grew 7.9 percent last year.

The GDP is projected to slightly increase in 2011, he said.

Valiyev said further that domestic prices are expected to slightly increase in 2011, but inflation will still not exceed single digits. He did not provide any figures on this year’s inflation, saying that this projection could be made only at the end of the first quarter of 2011.

The committee chairman noted that inflation made up 5.7 percent in 2010.

Valiyev said the poverty level decreased by 1.8 pct to 9.1 pct in the country last year. In the past seven years, the figure has dropped nearly five-fold from 44.7 pct in 2003.

According to Valiyev, Azerbaijan has posted the highest human development rate among the world’s 169 countries in the past five years. The country ranked 67th in 2010, up from the 101st ranking in 2005.