Azerbaijan, Baku, Aug. 31 / Trend , A.Badalova/
"Azerbaijan's rate of economic growth has been very rapid, averaging almost 20 percent over the past six years," Moody's Investors Service Vice President, Jonathan Schiffer said in his annual report on Azerbaijan.
With the onset of the global liquidity crunch, however, the rate of growth will return to a more 'normal' range and is estimated at 3-5 percent per annum during 2009- 2010
Moody's preserved for Azerbaijan Ba1 credit rating, which is the highest level in the non- investment-grade range.
"Efforts of the last few years to stimulate domestic demand via infrastructure projects have been pared back as a result of lower-than-forecast government revenues and to preserve the national oil fund," said Schiffer.
He believes Azerbaijan's challenges lie mainly in the areas of efficient use of public resources, prudent macroeconomic policy making, and development of stronger sovereign institutions. The most important of these will be to efficiently manage the future large inflows of oil and gas revenues to ensure macroeconomic stability and avoid a loss of competitiveness in the non-energy sector, Schiffer said.