Baku, Azerbaijan, May 21
By Ilkin Shafiyev - Trend:
The Azerbaijani government will review the state budget for 2018, Azerbaijani MP, member of the parliamentary committee for economic policy, industry and entrepreneurship, doctor of economic sciences Rufat Guliyev told Trend.
Guliyev stressed that one of the factors that positively affects the Azerbaijani economy is the stability of oil prices and the growth trends in oil prices.
Today, the price of both Azerbaijan's Azeri Light oil and Brent oil varies around $80. Some experts expect the price of "black gold" to reach $100 by the end of the year.
Furthermore, many international financial institutions are reviewing their forecasts for the Azerbaijani economy.
Thus, the International Monetary Fund expects that the country's GDP to be 2 percent (1.3 percent in the previous forecast) in 2018, and to reach 3.9 percent in 2019. The World Banks expects the figure at the level of 1.8 percent for 2018 and 3.8 percent for 2019.
Guliyev noted that two more factors positively affect the Azerbaijani economy along with the high oil prices.
First, according to him, Azerbaijan's GDP growth rates in the first quarter of 2018 exceeded the expectations.
Secondly, revenues of the country's budget were higher than forecast, which is also related to the development of the economy's non-oil sector, he explained.
Revenue part of the 2018 state budget is forecast to total 20.127 billion Azerbaijani manats (including centralized revenues in the amount of 19.473 billion manats, local revenues in the amount of 653.353 million manats), while expenditures are expected to amount to 21.047 billion manats (including centralized expenditures in the amount of 20.323 billion manats, local expenditures in the amount of 723.925 million manats).
Azerbaijan’s GDP in the first quarter of 2018 amounted to almost 17.2 billion manats, which is 2.3 percent more than in January-March 2017, according to a report of Azerbaijan’s State Statistical Committee.
The Azerbaijani government forecasts a 1.5 percent GDP growth for this year.
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