"Report": Azerbaijan to complete 2017 balance of payment with surplus

Baku. 3 April. REPORT.AZ/ Balance of payments in Azerbaijan has completed with a surplus of 650.965 mln USD in the last quarter of 2016. 

Report informs citing the Central Bank of Azerbaijan, in the first quarter of 2016, the balance of payments showed deficit of 1 270,780 mln USD. In addition, surplus of 18,1 mln USD was recorded in the second quarter and 62,48 mln USD in third quarter. As a result, Azerbaijan's balance of payment ended 2016 year with deficit of 539,235 mln USD. Notably, it is 21 times lower than the deficit recorded at the end of 2015.

Analytical Group of Report said that, negative balance of payments at minimum level in Azerbaijan will lead to the stability of US-dollar. Moreover, sterilization operations carried out by the Central Bank and oil prices above the level of 50 USD/barrel will enable the completion of balance of payments in 2017 with surplus. This in turn will give grounds for increasing credit rating of Azerbaijan.