The US has become Azerbaijan’s key trading partner for the first time in history, depriving Russia of the status of the main importer to Azerbaijan. By the end of the first two months of the year, the top 5 consisted of the US, Italy, Germany, Russia and Turkey.
The State Customs Committee (SCC) informs that in January-February the ‘non-aligned’ countries (states outwith the EU and CIS) returned their former status as the key trading partners of the country due to the success of the US. Those countries formed 47.1% or $1.904 billion of Azerbaijan’s foreign trade turnover ($4.042 billion), while the EU countries formed 43% ($1.737 billion). Only 9.9% or $401 million was accounted for by CIS member states.
In January-February exports to EU countries fell by 33.9% to $1.371 billion or 58.72% of total exports ($2.335 billion) and imports from the EU states fell by 3.8% to $367 million and made up 21.48% of total imports ($1.707 billion). As a result, Azerbaijan had a positive balance with the EU member countries at a level of $1.004 billion, which exceeded the net surplus of the country’s foreign trade ($627 million).
In January-Februry exports to the non-aligned countries declined by 43.33% to $0.901 billion (38.6% of total exports) and imports increased 1.93-fold up to $1.002 billion (58.7% of total imports). As a result, Azerbaijan received a $101 million negative balance with these countries.
Azerbaijan’s exports to the CIS countries amounted to only $62 million (2.67% of entire exports) with a fall of 45.31% and imports amounted to $338 million (19.8%), with an increase of 17.4%. As a result, the country had a negative balance of $276 billion, abc.az reports.
