Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

The total amount of foreign investments in Azerbaijan's economy amounted to 3.371 billion manats (over $4.29 billion) in January-September 2013, which is 66.21 percent more than in the same period of last year, the State Statistics Committee reported on October 18.

During the reporting period some 77.2 percent of investments in Azerbaijan's economy made by foreign countries and international organizations accounted for investors from the UK, the U.S., Japan, Norway, Turkey, the Czech Republic and France.

The UK retains a leading position among the foreign investors in Azerbaijan. This country's share in the total foreign investments made up 32.4 percent, while the investments totaled 1.091 billion manats.

Norwegian investments totaled 357.74 million manats (10.6 percent), while those of the U.S. made up 350.84 million manats (10.4 percent), and Japan 291.92 million manats (8.7 percent). Czech investments made up 214.22 million manats (6.4 percent), while Turkish investments 186.34 million manats (5.5 percent), and French ones 109.28 million manats (3.2 percent). Russia and Iran invested 86.46 million manats each (2.6 percent each).

Among international financial institutions, the largest volume of investment was allocated by the World Bank - 118.53 million manats, with a share of 3.5 percent. In January-September, the Asian Development Bank allocated 37.41 million manats (1.1 percent) for the implementation of projects in Azerbaijan and the Islamic Development Bank disbursed 7.77 million manats (0.2 percent).

The State Customs Committee said on October 19 that the volume of foreign trade transactions has increased by 6.39 percent in January-September compared to the same period of 2012.

According to a statistical report published in the committee's newspaper, the foreign trade partners of Azerbaijan included 144 countries during the reporting period.

Azerbaijan's total trade turnover amounted to $26.13 billion.

The bulk of export transactions during the reporting period amounted to $18.06 billion, which is 1.51 percent over the same period of 2012. The share of the public sector in exports amounted to $17.03 billion (94.3 percent), while that of the private sector made up $907.2 billion (5.02 percent) and physical entities $125.65 million (0.7 percent).

Imports in January-September amounted to $8.07 billion, which is 19.22 percent more than in the same period of 2012. In this period, the share of the public sector in import transactions was $2.5 billion (31.07 percent), while that of the private sector made up $5.16 billion (63.94 percent) and physical entities $400.73 million (4.97 percent).

Azerbaijan exported 1,827 types of goods and imported 5,839 types of goods during the reporting period.

The official exchange rate as of October 18 is 0.7843 manats manats (AZN) per USD.