BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 12. The total volume of services in Azerbaijan's economic relations with foreign countries for 9 months of this year amounted to $13.2 billion.
The data obtained by Trend from the country's Central Bank shows that $7.4 billion of them are services provided by non-residents to residents of Azerbaijan, and $5.8 billion are services provided by residents of Azerbaijan to residents of foreign countries.
According to the data, in general, the deficit of the balance of services decreased by 10.5 percent to $1.6 billion. The deficit of the balance of services of the oil and gas sector (mainly construction and other business services) amounted to $1.4 billion. The deficit of the balance of services in the non-oil and gas sector reached a neutral level ($0.2 billion).
Moreover, 28.5 percent of the turnover of mutual services accounted for transactions in transportation services. 61.5 percent of transportation services with a total value of $3.7 billion were related to the use of transportation services by non-residents of Azerbaijan. The value of transportation services rendered by residents of Azerbaijan to non-residents amounted to $2.3 billion, while the value of transportation services rendered by non-residents to residents of Azerbaijan amounted to $1.4 billion.
Over this period, exports of transportation services in the non-oil and gas sector increased by 14.8 percent, while imports increased by 10.4 percent. Consequently, the surplus on transportation services increased by 5.5 percent, to $862.1 million.
The transportation services surplus for 9 months of 2023 totaled $816.9 million. The turnover of reciprocal tourism services increased 42.7 percent to $2.8 billion in the first 9 months of 2024. The surplus of $0.4 billion was formed as a result of the fact that during the reporting period, exports of tourism services ($1.6 billion) exceeded imports ($1.2 billion). During this period, the number of Azerbaijani citizens traveling abroad increased by 18.9 percent, while the number of foreign citizens arriving in Azerbaijan increased by 29.1 percent.
The volume of services rendered to Azerbaijan residents by foreign countries in connection with tourism amounted to $1.2 billion. Of these, 78.4 percent were related to private visits of Azerbaijani citizens. During the reporting period, the volume of construction services to non-residents in the non-oil and gas sector decreased by 11.4 percent and amounted to $25 million. The volume of other business services provided to non-residents in the non-oil and gas sector increased by 57.3 percent and amounted to $1.4 billion.