Baku hosting Fitch’s annual conference

Azerbaijan’s economy managed to rebound itself after sharp decline in oil price, the head of Fitch Ratings in Russia and CIS Dmitry Surkov said at the opening of the annual conference of the organization in Baku.

According to him, Azerbaijan’s economy is currently being diversified.

Deputy Director at Public Debt Management Agency under the Ministry of Finance Azer Mursagulov said that the sharp decline in oil price in 2015 had some impact on Azerbaijan’s economy, but economic reforms eliminate them.

"Azerbaijan is among the countries that carried out the biggest number of reforms. Azerbaijan prepared fiscal rules and set new governing principles. According to those rules, stable expenditures were set regardless of the oil price. A decision was made to prevent the share of sovereign expenditures in the state budget from exceeding 3%. Non-oil sector was preferred. The share of non-oil sector is increasing every year," he said.

He also spoke about the borrowing policy: "We pay attention to ratio of external public debt to GDP and try to reduce our debts, as well as define periodic risks. This step is taken once in two years and the regular determination of risks has just completed."