Azeri Growth Top in CIS

Azerbaijan’s economy has shown the biggest growth among the CIS countries in over 27 years (from 1990 to 2017), according to a macroeconomic survey of the CIS oil economies prepared by the Analytical Credit Rating Agency.

“All the countries that became part of the Commonwealth of Independent States, including Georgia, faced a significant decline in the level of economic activity during the collapse of the Soviet Union and the subsequent period of transformation of economies. The peak of fall of these countries› economies was observed in 1995, when the reduction in real terms, averaged 48% as compared to 1990,” the survey says, Menafn reported.

From 2003 to 2007, the economies of most CIS countries reached the 1990 levels and surpassed them, according to the survey. The last recovered economies were the economies of Tajikistan (by 2013) and Georgia (by 2017), and the economies of Ukraine and Moldova were not completely restored after the collapse of the USSR, says the survey.

From 1990 to 2017, only Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan were able to increase the real GDP by more than two times: economic activity increased by 2.6 and 2.03 times, respectively, in these countries, says the survey.

According to the survey, the most significant indicators of recovery and growth in economic activity were demonstrated by the oil economies of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan during the period.

Meanwhile, the structure of the contributions of growth sources in these economies differs sufficiently, therefore, in 2016-2017, the economic growth in the two countries showed different dynamics.

“Among the basic trends in the formation of Azerbaijan›s GDP from 1990 to 2017, one can single out a significant economic trend of introduction of new basic means, mainly connected with extracting capacities,” said the survey.

“Throughout the period (with the exception of the year 2008 and 2010-2011) production capacities in Azerbaijan grew at a much higher rate than labor resources.”