Expert: Azerbaijan’s budget becoming less oil-dependent

By Trend

Azerbaijan’s consolidated budget is becoming less dependent on oil, Vusal Gasimli, executive director of Azerbaijan’s Center for Analysis of Economic Reforms and Communications, told Trend.

Gasimli said that an important sign of budget stability is that next year the share of oil gross domestic product in the state budget will decrease by 1 percent more, to 29.1 percent.

The director noted that the state budget for 2020 and the next three years are based on new budget rules, according to which the budget expenditures cannot grow by more than 3 percent per year.

"After making progress in the field of infrastructure, middle class development and army building, Azerbaijan by applying the new budget rules aims to ensure financial stability," Gasimli added. "Thus, taking into account the forecast of inflation of 4.6 percent next year, the consolidated budget will reach 29.4 billion manat ($17.3 billion), which is 2.7 billion manat ($1.5 billion, or 7.7 percent) more than this year."

In general, the 2020 state budget defines specific tasks to improve the sustainability of the budget and its individual components, including pension and healthcare expenditure, the director said.