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AZERBAIJAN'S ECONOMY IN JANUARY-OCTOBER 2005
(Interfax News Agency Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)Source: State Statistics Committee of Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan's GDP grew 23.4% year-on-year to 46.4 trillion manat in the first ten months of 2005 (5,540.99 manat/1EUR at end of October).
Per capita GDP rose 22.2% year-on-year to 5.6 million manat ($1,181) in the first ten months of 2005.
GDP broke down into 65.4% production of goods, 25.5% services, and 9.1% taxes. The oil and gas sectors contributed 42.1% of GDP, and non- oil sectors contributed 49.8%.
Industry contributed 48.6% of GDP, agriculture 6.9%, construction 9.9%, transportation 5.9%, communications 2.2%, and social and other services 10.8%.
Azerbaijan's government forecasts GDP of 59.5 trillion manat for 2005.
Industrial production in Azerbaijan grew 30% year-on-year in the first ten months of 2005, to 35.4 trillion manat.
Production of goods accounted for 94.2% of the total and production of services made up 5.8%. Oil production jumped 37.7% to 17.7 million tonnes, and gas output rose 10.7% to 4.6 billion cubic meters.
Production in non-oil sectors grew 16.2%. Production in the private sector surged 48%, and accounted for two-thirds of industrial output in the period.
The highest growth was in the weaving and metallurgy sectors, as well as in production of equipment and transportation equipment.
Azerbaijan's government expects industrial production to total 44.247 trillion manat this year.
Agricultural production in Azerbaijan grew 7.2% year-on-year to 7.557 trillion manat in the first ten months of 2005. Production grew 2.9% in livestock farming and 10% in crop farming.
Farmers harvested 1.06 million tonnes of potatoes in the ten months, 14.9% more year-on-year; 1.104 million tonnes of vegetables, 5.1% more; 500,200 tonnes of fruit, 49.1% more; and 6,900 tonnes of tobacco, 11.3% more. The grain harvest was down 1.5% to 1.975 million tonnes. The grape harvest was up 45.2% to 75,500 tonnes, and the cotton harvest grew 40.1% to 176,600 tonnes.
The country increased production 3.1% year-on-year to 215,700 tonnes of meat, 3% to 1.061 million tonnes of milk products, and 2% to 748.7 million eggs.
The government is forecasting agricultural production of 8.9 trillion manat for 2005.
Freight carriage in Azerbaijan rose 8.2% year-on-year to 103.6 million tonnes in the first ten months of 2005.
The private sector increased freight haulage by 6.5% to 58.5 million tonnes, or 56.4% of the total, and the state sector by 10.4% to 45.1 million tonnes, or 43.6%.
Trucks carried 56.1 million tonnes of freight, up 6.6%
year-on-
year. Trains carried 21 million tonnes, up 23.6%; crude oil and
oilproducts made up 73.9% of rail freight, construction materials made up 19.6%, and nonferrous metals, chemical products and other commodities made up the remainder.
Marine transport carried 11.2 million tonnes, 0.5% less than in the first ten months of 2004, with hydrocarbons making up 72.8% of the total, and dry cargo the remainder.
Internal oil pipelines carried 9.7 million tonnes of crude
and oil
products, and gas pipelines 7.8 billion cubic meters of
gas,respectively 1.3% more and 4.8% more year-on-year. Of the total gas carried, imports from Russia made up 48.8%.
Azerbaijani communications companies provided 1.714 trillion manat worth of postal and telecommunications services in the first ten months of 2005, 32.2% more than in the same period last year.
Companies in the private sector provided 75% of all services. Sales of services by state and private companies grew by respectively 13.2% and 40%.
Services to households grew 39.6% to 1.308 trillion manat, or 76.3% of the total.
The country's two mobile operators, Azercell Telecom and Bakcell, increased sales of communications services by 43.2% to 1.177 trillion manat, which amounted to 68.6% of all services.
There were more than 1.8 million mobile subscribers in Azerbaijan at the beginning of November.
Azerbaijan's visible foreign trade deficit more than doubled year- on-year to $720.3 million in January-September 2005, the State Customs Committee reported.
The visible trade turnover grew 21.5% year-on-year to $5.718 billion, as imports jumped 27.7% to $3.219 billion and exports rose 14.4% to $2.499 billion.
Oil products made up 31.43% of the country's exports, crude oil 37.86%, ferrous metal products accounted for 1.48%, chemicals 3.64%, aluminum and its products 1.61%, fruits and vegetables 2.78%, vegetable and animal oils 2.16%, cotton 0.89%.
Machinery and electrical equipment made up 34.92% of imports, ferrous metal products accounted for 9.99%, foodstuffs for 7.82%, transportation equipment 8.99%, and associated gas and gaseous hydrocarbons 6.92%.
Azerbaijan shipped 11.89% of imports from Singapore in
January-
September, 15.19% from Russia, and 9.08% from the UK. The
countryshipped 25.2% of exports to Italy, 10.78% to Turkmenistan, and 7.05% to Russia.
More than 3,170 state and private enterprises and about 5,130 individuals were involved in foreign trade operations. The state sector accounted for 72.35%, or $1.808 billion exports, the private sector 25.79% or $644.57 million, and private individuals 1.86% or $46.52 million. For imports, the breakdown was respectively 21.35% or $687.23 million, 73.17% or $2.356 billion, and 5.48% or $176.571 million.
Azerbaijan had a state budget deficit of 165.873 billion
manat, or
0.4% of GDP in the first nine months of 2005, the Finance
Ministryreported.
Revenues totaled 7.269 trillion manat, 35.4% more year-on-year and 1.1% more than the target for the period. Budget spending totaled 7.435 trillion manat, 49.3% more year-on-year but 4.2% less than the planned amount.
The Tax Ministry contributed 5.075 trillion manat, or 69.8% of revenue, including 1.898 trillion manat in taxes from the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic (Socar); and the State Customs Committee contributed 1.335 trillion manat, or 18.4%.
Expenditures amounted to 582.674 billion manat on general government expenditures (91.7% of the plan), 370.810 billion manat on health care (92.8%), 1.264 trillion manat on education (92.6%), 1.105 trillion manat on social welfare social security (97.6%), and 50.623 billion manat on servicing the foreign debt (43.2%).
Spending on wages to public sector employees rose 42.3% to 1.964 trillion manat, ot 26.4% of budget spending.
Azerbaijan's state budget for 2005 projects revenue of 10.222 trillion manat, spending of 11.016 trillion manat, and a deficit of 794 billion manat.
Azerbaijan posted inflation of 0.5% in October, bringing inflation in the first ten months of 2005 to 2.8%.
Prices in October rose 0.7% for foodstuffs and 0.2% for nonfood goods, but were unchanged for services. In the ten months, prices went up by respectively 1.3%, 4.8% and 7.9%.
The government is forecasting that inflation will slow to 5-7% in 2005, from 10.2% in 2004.
The money supply in Azerbaijan stood at 3.964 trillion manat as of November 1, up 16% from the beginning of 2005 and 28.1% year-on-year, but down 5.5% from a month earlier, the National Bank reported.
Cash money totaled 2.826 trillion manat, up 32.36% year-on-year, and noncash money grew 18.7% year-on-year to 1.138 trillion manat as of November 1.
Azerbaijan's foreign debt stood at $1.612 billion on October 1, up 5.4% from the beginning of 2005 as the government increased borrowing in the third quarter, the Finance Ministry reported. The debt amounted to 15.8% of GDP. The per capita debt increased 0.5% to $192.
The government had forecast that the foreign debt would reach $2.8 billion, or 27.1% of GDP by January 1, 2006.
Nominal monetary personal incomes in Azerbaijan rose 26.8% year-on- year to 30.6 trillion manat in the first ten months of 2005, with per capita incomes up 25.5% to 3.7 million manat.
Households spent 59.4% of incomes on goods, 12.7% on services, 4.5% on taxes, 2% on bank deposits and 21.4% on foreign currency.
Nominal household incomes exceeded spending by 3.5 million manat in the ten months.
Nominal household incomes and spending are expected to total respectively 36.16 trillion manat and 35.6 trillion manat in 2005.
The average monthly nominal wage in Azerbaijan rose 21.7% year-on- year to 581,800 manat in the first ten months of 2005. Wages were highest in extractive industries, financial services, leasing and commercial activities, and in construction.
Wages averaged 282,900 manat for workers employed at companies as a second job, and 443,100 manat for those employed under civil contracts.
The average monthly wage is expected to rise 29.1% to be 624,300 manat in 2005.
The number of registered jobless in Azerbaijan was up 1%
year-on-
year to 56,376 as of November 1, or 1.47% of the economically
activepopulation.
As of November 1, 2,328 people were receiving unemployment benefits, which averaged 233,644.90 manat per month. Women made up 51.6% of the unemployed.
Azerbaijan's economically active population stood at 3.843 million at the beginning of November.
There were 310,466 jobs created in Azerbaijan in the two years to October 1, 2005, including 155,297 permanent jobs. The government's plans call for creating 600,000 jobs in 2003-2008.
About 6.6% of the jobs created were in agriculture, 12.6% in manufacturing, 10% in wholesale and services, and 2% in transportation.
The number of pensioners in Azerbaijan rose by 9.4% in the
first
nine months of 2005, to 1.357 million, including 763,200
seniors,264,900 disabled persons, 134,600 people who have lost the family's primary income earner, and 194,700 so-called social pensioners.
The average monthly pension due as of October 1 was 140,800 manat, up 18% year-on-year. The average pension on October 1 amounted to 24.4% of the average monthly nominal wage.
The State Social Security Fund paid out 1.71 trillion manat to finance pension and benefit payments in the first nine months, 21.5% more than a year earlier. This included 919 billion manat in pension payments, up 8.8%.
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