Azerbaijan’s parliament approves 2008 state budget performance report

According to him, the current price of oil on the world market is favourable for Azerbaijan and will allow the country to increase foreign exchange reserves in the near future.

“Despite the global financial crisis, our national currency is stable and the nominal effective exchange rate is offset. But all these still does not give us reason to veg out,” he added.

He also noted that the central bank recently cut refinancing rate to 2% from 3% to shore up economic activity.

“Liquidity is increasing in Azerbaijan at present amid loose monetary policy,” he added.

Elman Rustamov noted that government-funded mortgage loan lending will resume in a few days and social mortgages will also be available.

After discussion, the 2008 state budget performance report was approved by Milli Majlis.

According to the report submitted by Finance Minister Samir Sharifov, the 2008 state budget revenue amounted to AZN 10 762.7 million against the forecast of AZN 10 484 million, up 79.2% from the previous year.

The budget revenue-GDP ratio was 28.3%, up is 7.1 percentage points from the previous year.

Budget expenditures made AZN 10 774.2 million against the forecast of AZN 11 060.6 million, up 77% from the previous year.

/APA/