Economy (Azerbaijan)
====================


     Overview:
         Azerbaijan is less developed industrially than either Armenia or Georgia,
         the other Transcaucasian states. It resembles the Central Asian states in
         its majority Muslim population, high structural unemployment, and low
         standard of living. The economy's most prominent products are cotton, oil,
         and gas. Production from the Caspian oil and gas field has been in decline
         for several years. With foreign assistance, the oil industry might generate
         the funds needed to spur industrial development. However, civil unrest,
         marked by armed conflict in the Nagorno-Karabakh region between Muslim
         Azeris and Christian Armenians, makes foreign investors wary. Azerbaijan
         accounts for 1.5% to 2% of the capital stock and output of the former Soviet
         Union. Although immediate economic prospects are not favorable because of
         civil strife, lack of economic reform, political disputes about new economic
         arrangements, and the skittishness of foreign investors, Azerbaijan's
         economic performance was the best of all former Soviet republics in 1991
         largely because of its reliance on domestic resources for industrial output.
     GDP:
         $NA, per capita $NA; real growth rate --0.7% (1991)
     Inflation rate (consumer prices):
         87% (1991)
     Unemployment rate:
         NA%
     Budget:
         revenues $NA; expenditures $NA, including capital expenditures of $NA (1992)
     Exports:
         $780 million (f.o.b., 1991)
       commodities:
         oil and gas, chemicals, oilfield equipment, textiles, cotton (1991)
       partners:
         mostly CIS countries
     Imports:
         $2.2 billion (c.i.f., 1990)
       commodities:
         machinery and parts, consumer durables, foodstuffs, textiles (1991)
     External debt:
         $1.3 billion (1991 est.)
     Industrial production:
         growth rate 3.8% (1991)
     Electricity:
         6,025,000 kW capacity; 23,300 million kWh produced, 3,280 kWh per capita
         (1991)
     Industries:
         petroleum and natural gas, petroleum products, oilfield equipment; steel,
         iron ore, cement; chemicals and petrochemicals; textiles
     Agriculture:
         cotton, grain, rice, grapes, fruit, vegetables, tea, tobacco; cattle, pigs,
         sheep and goats
     Illicit drugs:
         illicit producer of cannabis and opium; mostly for domestic consumption;
         status of government eradication programs unknown; used as transshipment
         points for illicit drugs to Western Europe
     Economic aid:
         NA
     Currency:
         as of May 1992, retaining ruble as currency
     Exchange rates:
         NA
     Fiscal year:
         calendar year