Azerbaijan's foreign trade surplus hits $5bn

By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijan’s foreign trade surplus amounted to $5 billion in the first quarter of 2022, the State Customs Committee has reported.

In January-March, the country's trade turnover amounted to $10.9 billion. Of the total turnover, export amounted to $7.9 billion or 73.1 percent, while import was $2.9 billion or 26.8 percent, resulting in a surplus of $5 billion.

Moreover, legal entities and individual entrepreneurs in the country carried out trade operations with partners in 152 countries.

In terms of export, the EU countries accounted for $5.1 billion or 64.7 percent, the CIS countries for $575.3 million or 7.2 percent, and other countries for $2.2 billion or 28 percent of the country's total export. 

As to imports, the CIS countries accounted for $812.2 million or 27.7 percent, the EU countries accounted for $457.4 million or 15.6 percent and other countries for $1.6 billion for 56.6 percent of the country's imports during the reported months.

Furthermore, 163,317 tons of cargo worth $261.8 million were transported by sea, 1.4 million tons worth $789.5 million by railway, and 1.1 million tons worth $2.2 billion of cargo by car. Some 21,977 tons of cargo worth $360.8 million were transported by air in January-March 2022.

In the structure of exports, the main volume came from products of the oil and gas sector with 90.8 percent, while the non-oil and gas sector amounted to 9.1 percent of the total export volume.

Azerbaijan's main export transactions during the reported year were with Italy ($3.8 billion), Turkey ($961 million), Portugal ($390.6 million), Israel ($330.4 million), and Ukraine ($317.2 million).

Azerbaijan's main import partners were Turkey ($482.1 million), Russia ($476.1 million), China ($471.4 million), Kazakhstan ($175.4 million), and Germany ($129.7 million).