| Economy - overview | Azerbaijan's number one export is oil. Azerbaijan's oil production declined through 1997, but has registered an increase every year since. Negotiation of production-sharing arrangements (PSAs) with foreign firms, which have committed $60 billion to long-term oilfield development, should generate the funds needed to spur future industrial development. Oil production under the first of these PSAs, with the Azerbaijan International Operating Company, began in November 1997. A consortium of Western oil companies began pumping 1 million barrels a day from a large offshore field in early 2006, through a $4 billion pipeline it built from Baku to Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. By 2010 revenues from this project will double the country's current GDP. Azerbaijan shares all the formidable problems of the former Soviet republics in making the transition from a command to a market economy, but its considerable energy resources brighten its long-term prospects. Baku has only recently begun making progress on economic reform, and old economic ties and structures are slowly being replaced. Several other obstacles impede Azerbaijan's economic progress: the need for stepped up foreign investment in the non-energy sector, the continuing conflict with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, and the pervasive corruption. Trade with Russia and the other former Soviet republics is declining in importance, while trade is building with Turkey and the nations of Europe. Long-term prospects will depend on world oil prices, the location of new pipelines in the region, and Azerbaijan's ability to manage its oil wealth. |
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| GDP | 2.6% (2005 est.) |
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| GDP - real growth rate | 34.5% (2006 est.) |
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| GDP - composition by sector | agriculture: 14.1%
industry: 45.7%
services: 40.2% (2002 est.) |
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| Population below poverty line | 49% (2002 est.) |
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Household income or consumption
by percentage share | lowest 10%: 2.8%
highest 10%: 27.8% (1995) |
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Distribution of family income
- Gini index | 36.5 (2001) |
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| Labor force | 5.191 million (2006 est.) |
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| Labor force - by occupation | agriculture: 41%
industry: 7%
services: 52% (2001) |
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| Unemployment rate | 1.2% official rate (2006 est.) |
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| Budget | revenues: $6.008 billion
expenditures: $5.804 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA (2006 est.) |
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| Industries | petroleum and natural gas, petroleum products, oilfield equipment; steel, iron ore; cement; chemicals and petrochemicals; textiles |
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| Industrial production growth rate | 50% (2006 est.) |
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Electricity -
production | 20.35 billion kWh (2004) |
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Electricity -
production by source | fossil fuel: 89.7%
hydro: 10.3%
nuclear: 0%
other: 0% (2001) |
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Electricity -
consumption | 20.57 billion kWh (2004) |
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Electricity -
exports | 510 million kWh (2004) |
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Electricity -
imports | 2.15 billion kWh (2004) |
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| Oil - production | 477,000 bbl/day (2005 est.) |
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| Oil - consumption | 120,000 bbl/day (2004 est.) |
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| Oil - exports | NA bbl/day |
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| Oil - imports | NA bbl/day |
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| Oil - proved reserves | 589 million bbl (1 January 2002) |
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| Agriculture - products | cotton, grain, rice, grapes, fruit, vegetables, tea, tobacco; cattle, pigs, sheep, goats |
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| Exports | $12.51 billion f.o.b. (2006 est.) |
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| Exports - commodities | oil and gas 90%, machinery, cotton, foodstuffs |
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| Exports - partners | Italy 30.3%, France 9.4%, Russia 6.6%, Turkey 6.3%, Turkmenistan 6.3%, Georgia 4.8%, Israel 4.5%, Croatia 4.1% (2005) |
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| Imports | $5.176 billion f.o.b. (2006 est.) |
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| Imports - commodities | machinery and equipment, oil products, foodstuffs, metals, chemicals |
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| Imports - partners | Russia 17%, UK 9.1%, Singapore 9.1%, Turkey 7.4%, Germany 6.1%, Turkmenistan 5.8%, Ukraine 5.4%, China 4.1% (2005) |
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| Debt - external | $2.483 billion (2006 est.) |
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| Economic aid - recipient | ODA, $140 million (2000 est.) |
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| Currency code | AZM |
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| Exchange rates | Azerbaijani manats per US dollar - 0.8934 (2006), 4,727.1 (2005), 4,913.48 (2004), 4,910.73 (2003), 4,860.82 (2002)
note: on 1 January 2006 Azerbaijan revalued its currency, with 5,000 old manats equal to 1 new manat |
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| Fiscal year | calendar year |
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