Minister: Economic ‘safety cushion’ in Azerbaijan creates basis for sustainable development

Azerbaijan, Baku, April 17 / Trend, A.Akhundov / Incomes of Azerbaijani population in the first quarter increased by 13.9 percent up to 7.231.6 billion manat, per capita income grew by 12.3 percent. Azerbaijani Taxes Minister Fazil Mammadov made this statement addressing a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers on the results of the socio-economic development in the first quarter 2012 and the upcoming challenges, chaired by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. He said in the first quarter, along with the overall GDP growth, production in non-oil sector grew by 7.7 percent as a result of continuation of Azerbaijani economic growth trend. "In January-March average salary of wage workers grew by 8.5 percent up to 368.5 manat, compared to the same period of last year," Mammadov said. Against the backdrop of maintaining stable exchange rate of national currency and the growth of population's total income, keeping inflation at 3.1 per cent contributed to a 4.3-percent growth in the volume of deposits in banks in the reporting period. "Achievement of strategic currency reserves, which play economic "safety cushion" role, thr level, capable of completely neutralizing the macroeconomic risks, the economic growth at the expense of non-oil sector, keeping inflation at the single-digit level, have created a solid foundation for sustainable development," Mammadov said. The official exchange rate is 0.786 AZN / USD on April 17. Do you have any feedback? Contact our journalist at agency@trend.az