BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 29. Share of the non-oil and gas sector in Azerbaijan's GDP will approach 70 percent by 2024 given maintenance of the current pace of its development, Deputy Head of the Market Analysis Department of Gazprombank Gulnara Khaidarshina told Trend.
According to Khaidarshina, this can lead to increase of sovereign ratings and attractiveness of Azerbaijan's debt instruments.
"Azerbaijan's economy is well protected from external shocks thanks to high international reserves, which, according to our estimates, correspond to 75 percent of GDP. Thanks to a rational approach to budget expenditures through the transfer mechanism from the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) and high prices for oil, assets of SOFAZ reached a historic high in 2022 and amounted to $49 billion,” she said.
Maintaining macroeconomic stability is also facilitated by a fixed exchange rate of Azerbaijani manat against the US dollar, which prevents external crisis phenomena to ‘penetrate’ into the Azerbaijani economy, the bank’s representative noted.
“Besides, thanks to the development of the non-oil and gas sector, additional resilience of the economy to the volatility of commodity prices is provided," Khaidarshina said.
She reminded that from January through February this year, the non-oil and gas sector of Azerbaijan grew by 4.6 percent on annual basis, which is higher than the average for the CIS countries.
"In general, thanks to new projects in Karabakh and the growing logistical importance of Azerbaijan in the Eurasian region, we are increasingly paying attention to non-oil and gas drivers of economic growth," she added.
Azerbaijan's GDP from January through February 2023 increased by 0.4 percent year-on-year - to 19.8 billion manat ($11.6 billion)
In 2022, the country’s GDP grew by 4.6 percent compared to 2021 - to 133.8 billion manat ($78.7 billion).
