Azerbaijan-2014 by numbers: the secret of stability

By Vestnik Kavkaza

The Azerbaijani manat remains the most stable currency in the CIS and Eastern Europe. According to Business Newspaper (Belarus), during the whole year all the currencies of Europe, including the euro, were weakening against the growing dollar. The only country which prevented devaluation of its currency against the American dollar was Azerbaijan. The manat even strengthened against the dollar by 0.01%.

On the one hand it is rather surprising, as Azerbaijan gains major revenues from oil and gas exports, and at the end of the year oil prices fell drastically. However, the economic and financial crisis which enveloped the world several years ago and regional conflicts didn’t affect tge development of Azerbaijan. “The main reason is the stability of the socio-political situation in Azerbaijan, the unity of people and power, and successful fulfillment of our programs,” President Ilham Aliyev thinks.

A year ago Azerbaijan decided to achieve growth of GDP and the non-oil sector. In a year the economy has grown by 3%. It seems the growth isn’t significant, but in some countries there was no economic growth at all, while in others it reached only 1%.

The non-oil sector of Azerbaijan grew by 7%.

Inflation is at the level of 1.4%.

People’s incomes grew by 4.8%, exceeding inflation threefold.

The Azerbaijani economy got $27 billion of investments; 16 billion of them were internal investments. A trend of recent years is the domination of internal investments in the general volume of investments in the economy of Azerbaijan.

However, the fact that $11 billion was attracted from abroad means that Azerbaijan remains an attractive country for foreign investors. Experts believe it is connected with assuring investors that Azerbaijan is a stable country. Today the foreign currency resources of Azerbaijan exceed $50 billion.

In the last 11 years Azerbaijan is thought to be the most dynamically developed country, according to pace of the economic growth. Last year, experts of the Davos International Economic Forum put the Azerbaijani economy in 38th place in the world in terms of competitiveness.

2014 was the Year of Industry in Azerbaijan. More than 230 industrial enterprises were founded and 123 thousand new jobs were created.

A second Azerbaijani satellite was launched on orbit. Now Azerbaijan has two satellites: one is telecommunications, and the second one monitors the Earth surface.

Experts stated that one of the most important projects which were fulfilled by Azerbaijan last year was the reconstruction of Heydar Aliyev Airport, as well as launching the ferry terminal of the Alyat International Sea Trade Port, construction of Shamkirchay Storage Reservoir, and major enterprises, including the concrete factory of Norm, due to which Azerbaijan eliminated import dependency in this sphere.

Revenues gained due to providing various projects are invested into the social sphere by the authorities. Last year Azerbaijan built 60 medical centers and more than 50 schools. Average monthly earnings reach 600 manats. 400 thousand people, more than 90 thousand families receive targeted social aid from the government. The state allocated 155 manats (about $200) to each family monthly. The poverty rate is at the level of 5% in Azerbaijan, the unemployment rate is less than 5%, while the population grew by 116 thousand people.

Economic successes were supported by successful promotion of Azerbaijan in the international arena. Last year Baku chaired the Committee of Ministers in the Council of Europe which appreciated the Azerbaijani experience of multiculturalism. Baku thinks that if the experience was broadly analyzed in the world, many negative facts could be avoided. As for international contacts of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev stated on their direction: “No foreign force can talk to us in the language of ultimatum. Interference in internal affairs damages stability, leads to bloody conflicts in countries, and negatively influences the forces which initiated the bloody conflicts in the end.”