Azerbaijan's non-oil sector sees 7.3 pct growth
By Aynur Karimova
The GDP of Azerbaijan amounted to 36.03 billion manats ($34.4 billion) in January-August 2015, which exceeds the figure for the same period of last year by 4.2 percent.
This was announced by Azerbaijan's State Statistics Committee in its recently published report on the economic indicators of the first eight months.
The committee said that in the reported period, the non-oil sector of the country's economy grew by 7.3 percent compared to the same period of 2014, and its share of the GDP was 68.4 percent, some 10.7 percentage points higher than the index for the same period of last year.
The volume of the production and processing of oil and gas amounted to 31.6 percent of GDP, a 0.1-percent decrease compared to the same period of last year.
The statistics committee also noted that 54.34 percent of Azerbaijan's GDP was formed in the production sector, of which 34.6 percent was in in industry, 13.4 percent in construction and 6.3 percent in agriculture, forestry and fish farms in the reported period.
Net taxes on products and imports accounted for eight percent of Azerbaijan's GDP. Some 37.66 percent of gross production was created in the service sector.
The government of energy-rich Azerbaijan has been taking significant measures to develop the non-oil sector, which as a result has shown a growth between 10 to 15 percent over the last 2-3 years. Relevant programs were adopted at the state level on the development of the non-oil sector, covering mainly the agriculture, industry, and IT sectors.
2015 was declared the Year of Agriculture in Azerbaijan with the expectation of involving state financial resources in this sector and promoting the country's agrarian potential.
Azerbaijan plans to export products worth $26.8 billion in 2015, some $2.7 billion of which will be goods in the non-oil sector.
The Azerbaijani government predicts the share of non-oil sector in Azerbaijan's GDP to be at 65.1 percent for 2015, which is 5.5 percent higher than the forecasts for 2014 and 8.5 percent higher than in 2013.
Today, Azerbaijan is actively developing the non-oil sector of the national economy, thanks to its growing economy backed by energy wealth, internal stability, and a Western-oriented policy. In this regard, the main slogan of the government is "to change oil capital into human capital".
The official exchange rate on September 18 was 1.0473 AZN/USD.
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Aynur Karimova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Aynur_Karimova
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