The surplus of current account of the balance of payments of Azerbaijan amounted to $1.56 billion in January-March 2018 compared to $380.2 million in the same period of 2017, according to the balance of payments of the Central Bank (CBA).

According to the balance of payments, the surplus of the current account of Azerbaijan’s oil and gas sector amounted to $2.84 billion in January-March 2018 ($1.5 billion in the same period of 2017).

Meanwhile, the surplus of the current account on the oil and gas sector fully covers the deficit of the account on the non-oil sector ($1.28 billion) in January-March 2018 which is $945.6 million in the same period of 2017.

The surplus of the financial account amounted to $308 million in January-March 2018 as compared to the deficit of $462.7 million in January-March 2017.

Analysis of the balance of payments by sectors showed that as in previous years, during the reporting period, foreign economic operations in the oil and gas sector had a positive balance, while in the non-oil sector – a negative balance.

The total volume of foreign trade turnover in January-March 2018 amounted to $6.74 billion, while a positive balance – $2.41 billion.

During the reporting period Azerbaijan conducted trade operations with 145 countries. At the same time, 12 percent of the trade turnover accounted for CIS countries, while 88 percent accounted for other countries.

Moreover, the reserve assets of Azerbaijan increased by $1.30 billion in January-March 2018. The figure increased by $464 million in January-March 2017.

Source : www.azernews.az