Italy Azerbaijan's main trading partner in Jan-Aug

By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

Italy was Azerbaijan’s main trading partner in the period between January and August 2020, the State Customs Committee has reported.

The trade turnover with Italy accounted for $3.3 billion out of Azerbaijan’s overall trade turnover of $16.5 billion in the first seven months of the year.

According to the report, Azerbaijan's export to Italy amounted to $3.1 billion, while import from Italy amounted to $276.8 million.

Turkey was Azerbaijan's second largest trade partner during the reporting period, with trade turnover of $2.8 billion. Export of Azerbaijani products to Turkey amounted to $1.9 billion, while the import from Turkey amounted to $983.9 million.

Earlier it was reported that, Russia was Azerbaijan's third largest trade partner, as well as first largest trade partner among CIS countries. Thus, trade turnover between two countries amounted to $1.7 billion. In the meantime, export to Russia amounted to $463.3 million, while import to $1.2 billion.

Moreover, the top three trading partners in terms of export during the reporting period were Italy, Turkey and Russia as well. While, top three trading partners in terms of import were Russia, Turkey and China during the first eight months of the year.

It should be noted that trade turnover between Azerbaijan and China amounted to $1.3 billion, with export amounting to $419.4 million and import to $888.5 million.

Italy was Azerbaijan’s top trade partner in 2019 as well with the mutual trade turnover amounting to $7 billion and Azerbaijan was the largest supplier of crude oil to Italy. Thus, Italy is one of Azerbaijan’s main trade partners in the world and some 113 Italian companies, operating in various fields, are registered in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan is one of Italy’s three main energy resources suppliers and the implementation of the Trans-Adriatic Gas Pipeline project will raise cooperation between two countries.

The volume of Azerbaijan’s foreign trade turnover amounted to $16.5 billion during the period of January-August 2020. The value of export amounted to $9.8 billion or 59.6 percent of the total turnover, while the value of import amounted to $6.6 billion or 40.4 percent. Thus, foreign trade turnover resulted in surplus of $3.1 billion.