Azernews.Az

By Gulgiz Dadashova

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) expects the acceleration of the economic growth trends in Azerbaijan in 2013.

In its Regional Economic Prospects report, EBRD says that after successfully overcoming the financial crisis, Azerbaijan's economy has slowed as the pace of oil extraction decelerated.

However, the oil output decline has been more than compensated by the encouraging growth of the non-oil sector led by construction and services sectors.

"Some recovery of the oil sector and continued expansion of the non-oil sector of the Azerbaijani economy should lead to an acceleration of economic growth trends in 2013," the report said.

The immediate macroeconomic risks continue softening thanks to a very strong fiscal position, as well as oil reserves.

EBRD predicts Azerbaijan's GDP growth at 3.5 percent in 2013 and 4 percent in 2014 compared to 2.2 percent in 2012.

The inflation, according to the bank's forecasts, will amount to 3.4 percent in 2013 compared to 0.7 percent in 2012.

Forecasts of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the United Nations also show that economic growth in the country this year will be at around 3.5 percent.

Meanwhile, the state forecast on GDP growth rate in 2013 is at 5.3 percent, and the total volume of Azerbaijan's GDP is expected to reach $71 billion, with 55 percent of the growth to be provided by the non-oil economy.

The country recorded a 9.7 percent growth rate in the non-oil sector and its share in GDP reached 52.7 percent in 2012.

According to the country's statistics committee, Azerbaijan's GDP grew 3.1 percent in the first quarter of 2013 compared to the same period of 2012 and amounted to 12.947 billion manats.