Finance

Finance

Azerbaijan posts fourfold rise in 2008 balance of payments surplus

31 March 2009 12:31 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Vahab Rzayev â€“ APA-ECONOMICS. Azerbaijanâ€™s total balance of payment for 2008 reached $12 049.9 million, up 4.2 times on a year ago.
The National Bank of Azerbaijan told APA-Economics that the current account surplus grew by 80%, year-over-year, to $16.5 billion.
However, capital and finance flow deficit dropped 28.1% to $4.4 billion:

Balance of payment (mln. USD)

2007

2008

I. Current account surplus                    9 018,9                                                 16 453,5
Balance of foreign trade                          15 224,3                                              23 011,7
Balance of services                                   -2 131,0                                               -2 342,6
Balance of incomes                                   -5 079,4                                               -5 266,0
Repatriation of investment incomes             -4 920,8                                               -5 346,9
Balance of current transfers                        1 005,0                                                1 050,4

II. Capital and finance flow                 -6 120,8                                                 -4 403,6
Direct investment                                   -5 102,7                                                  -545,0
- Inflow to Azerbaijan                               4 291,1                                                3 982,4
- Outflow                                               -285,6                                                  -555,6
- Repatriation of investment                    -9 108,2                                                -3 971,8
Oil bonus                                                  68,2                                                        3,5
Credits and other investments                   -1 086,3                                                -3 862,1

III. Total surplus 2 898,1 12 049,9

Foreign trade turnover with 140 nations rose 39.7% to $38.2 billion and the favorable balance of foreign trade reached $23 billion.
The country carried out 10% of foreign trade with CIS countries and 90% with faraway countries.
Besides, commodities exports increased by 40%, year-on-year, to $30.6 billion.
Oil products accounted for 93.1% of exports and $28.5 billion worth of oil products were shipped to foreign countries, up 140% on a year ago.
Crude oil made $26.3 billion and oil products accounted for $2.2 billion of the total oil exports.

Exports (mln. USD)
	2007-ci il	2008-ci il
Fuels:	20 429,6	29 098,9
- Oil products	20 039,4	28 468,6
-Other goods	390,2	630,3
Machines and equipment	207,1	203,5
Consumer goods	556,1	581,2
Other commodities	76,5	702,8
Exports in total	21 269,3	30 586,4

The total cost of consumer goods imports increased by 19.1% from a year ago.
Consumer goods of $3 020.3 million including humanitarian goods ($30.9 million) and imports by individuals ($1214.9 million) were imported to the country. Foods made 34.5% of this.
The share of machines and equipment bought through foreign investments was 12% or $912.8 million in imports.
78.6% of this was capital goods imported for oil and gas contracts.
Besides, machines, equipment, chemicals, ferrous and nonferrous metals worth $3 641.6 million were imported for production in the country.

Exports (mln. USD)
	2007-	2008
Consumer goods:	2 535,6	3 020,3
- Foodstuffs	831,3	1 042,8
- Non-food products	1 704,3	1 977,5
Investment goods	1 063,6	912,8
Other goods	2 445,8	3 641,6
Imports in total	6 045,0	7 574,7