Azerbaijan's foreign trade surplus hits $7.7bn

By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijan’s foreign trade surplus amounted to $7.7 billion in the period from January to April 2022, the State Customs Committee has reported.

In the first four months of the year, the country's trade turnover amounted to $15.8 billion. Of the total turnover, export amounted to $11.8 billion or 74.5 percent, while import was $4 billion or 25.4 percent, resulting in a surplus of $7.7 billion.

Moreover, legal entities and individual entrepreneurs in the country carried out trade operations with partners in 155 countries.

In terms of export, EU countries accounted for $7.5 billion or 63.9 percent, CIS countries for $635.2 million or 5.3 percent, and other countries for $3.6 billion or 30.7 percent of the country's total export.

As to imports, CIS countries accounted for $1.1 billion or 27.7 percent, EU countries accounted for $638.9 million or 15.8 percent, and other countries for $2.2 billion for 56.4 percent of the country's imports during the reported months.

Furthermore, 214,936 tons of cargo worth $312.9 million were transported by sea, 1.9 million tons worth $1 billion by railway, and 1.5 million tons worth $3 billion of cargo by car. Some 25,281 tons of cargo worth $497.1 million were transported by air in January-April 2022.

In the structure of the exports, the main volume came from products of the oil and gas sector with 91.8 percent, while the non-oil and gas sector amounted to 8.1 percent of the total export volume.

Azerbaijan's main export transactions during the reported period were with Italy ($5.8 billion), Turkey ($1.2 billion), Israel ($541.6 million), Portugal ($400.5 million), and the UK ($397.9 million).

Over the past four months, Azerbaijan's main import partners were Russia ($694.5 million), Turkey ($687.4 million), China ($620.5 million), Kazakhstan ($202 million), and Germany ($184 million).