Baku. 5 June. REPORT.AZ/ The World Bank predicts the growth of Azerbaijani economy by 2% this year, while by 3-4% the next year.
Report informs, Naveed Hassan Naqvi, World Bank (WB) manager for Azerbaijan, said at the Azerbaijan-EU business forum.
Commenting on the level of inflation, N.H Naqvi said that if this figure was 11% in 2016 and 7-8% in 2017, it would be lower this year. "These figures show that the works went better . It is true that the non-oil sector has grown in difficult times, but the economy of the country is still dependent on oil, its price and oil profits. However, Azerbaijani government has made good investments in necessary areas. For example, over the past 25 years it has been invested heavily in the development of structure".
Nevertheless, the WB representative emphasized the importance of structural reforms: "I would link them with the desire to diversify the economy of Azerbaijan. But none of them is possible without investing in people, including people's education. However the amount of investment on education is low while oil profit is growing. Your teachers earn $ 150-200 per month and your doctors get officially the same amount of money. But increasing of wages without change in structure is not way out. I think that for the diversification of the economy, it is necessary to invest in structural reforms, mostly on human capital".