BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 15. The services balance, a key component of Azerbaijan’s balance of payments, remains in deficit but has dropped by 13% compared to the first nine months of last year, said Samir Nasirov, Director of the Statistics Department of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA), Trend reports.
Speaking at a briefing on the balance of payments, Nasirov pointed out that the key factors behind the deficit are tied up with the oil and gas sector.
“Construction and other business services provided in the oil and gas sector are the primary contributors to the services balance deficit.
However, for some time now, transport and tourism services have shown a surplus in the balance of payments. In the first nine months of the year, the net surplus of transport services reached $1.3 billion, representing a 50% increase compared to the same period last year. The surplus in transport services mainly reflects revenues from oil and gas exports, as well as passenger and freight transport expenses.
Tourism services, meanwhile, recorded a net surplus of $320 million during the same period. This increase is primarily driven by foreign visitors, with over 1.94 million tourists visiting the country,” Nasirov added.
In terms of the construction sector's contribution to Azerbaijan's GDP, it represented roughly 6.8% of the nation's total Gross Domestic Product as of October 2025. This marks a marginal uptick from 6.7% recorded in April 2025 and a rise from 6.3% noted in October 2024.
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