Azerbaijan current account surplus drops 4% in Q1
BAKU. June 14 (Interfax) - Azerbaijan saw a balance of payments current account surplus of $4.63 billion in the first quarter of 2012, down 4% on the first quarter of 2011, the Central Bank of Azerbaijan told Interfax.
The balance of payments for January-March 2012, published on the Central Bank website, showed a $6.6 billion surplus for the oil and gas sector.
Foreign trade turnover in the first quarter reached $11.12 billion and the surplus amounted to $6.82 billion. CIS countries accounted for 7.3% of trade turnover and non-CIS countries for 92.7%.
Exports totaled $8.97 billion, of which 97.8% was oil and oil products ($8.77 billion).
Imports totaled $2.15 billion, including $899.7 million in consumer goods, of which $301.1 million were food goods. Imports of investment goods totaled $163.5 million and imports of other goods - $1.09 billion.
The current account surplus in 2011 was $17.15 billion, 14% up on 2010.
