Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev attended a meeting of ministers in Baku yesterday to round up achievements of the country in the first half of 2013. He noted that positive developments will continue until the end of the year.
The GDP increased by 5%, output of the non-petroleum field by 11%, agriculture by 5%. $12.6 billion were invested in Azerbaijan, about $7 billion of them by national investors and $5 billion by foreigners. Income of the population increased by over 7%, inflation by only 2%. The average wage in Azerbaijan totaled $520, average pension $200.
Unemployment was a little over 5%. Reduction of unemployment by opening 1.18 million workplaces is one of the main goals of the next 10 years. 55,000 workplaces, including 45,000 permanent workplaces, were opened in January-June 2013.
Aliyev called selection of a route for the Southern Gas Corridor a historic event. He compared it with importance of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline and the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline.
Concluding his speech, the president reminded about achievements of the military field demonstrated during the parade. He noted that Azerbaijan will continue purchases of modern military equipment. Aliyev said that reports about purchases of weapons abroad worth $1 billion and $1.6 billion were false and were in fact much greater than the mentioned figures.
