Economic overview: Azerbaijan is less developed industrially than either Armenia or Georgia, the other Transcaucasian states. It resembles the Central Asian states in its majority nominally Muslim population, high structural unemployment, and low standard of living. The economy's most prominent products are oil, cotton, and gas. Production from the Caspian oil and gas field has been in decline for several years, but the November 1994 ratification of the $7.5 billion oil deal with a consortium of Western companies should generate the funds needed to spur future industrial development. Azerbaijan shares all the formidable problems of the ex-Soviet republics in making the transition from a command to a market economy, but its considerable energy resources brighten its long-term prospects. Baku has only recently begun making progress on economic reform, and old economic ties and structures have yet to be replaced. Whereas the economies of most of the former Soviet republics had begun to bottom out in 1995, Azerbaijan's economy continued to plummet because of its late start on economic reform. GDP: purchasing power parity - $11.5 billion (1995 estimate as extrapolated from World Bank estimate for 1994) GDP real growth rate: -17% (1995 est.) GDP per capita: $1,480 (1995 est.) GDP composition by sector: agriculture: NA% industry: NA% services: NA% Inflation rate (consumer prices): 85% (1995 est.) Labor force: 2.789 million by occupation: agriculture and forestry 32%, industry and construction 26%, other 42% (1990) Unemployment rate: 2.3% includes officially registered unemployed ; also large numbers of unregistered unemployed and underemployed workers (December 1995) Budget: revenues: $465 million expenditures: $488 million, including capital expenditures of $NA (1995 est.) Industries: petroleum and natural gas, petroleum products, oilfield equipment; steel, iron ore, cement; chemicals and petrochemicals; textiles Industrial production growth rate: -21% (1 995 est.) Electricity: capacity: 4,900,000 kW production: 17 billion kWh consumption per capita: 2,200 kWh (1995 est.) Agriculture: cotton, grain, rice, grapes, fr uit, vegetables, tea, tobacco; cattle, pigs, sheep, goats Illicit drugs: illicit cultivator of cannabis and opium poppy, mostly for CIS consumption; limited government eradication program; transshipment point for illicit drugs to Western Europe Exports: $549.9 million (f.o.b., 1995) commodities: oil and gas, chemicals, oilfield equipment, textiles, cotton partners: mostly CIS and European countries Imports: $681.5 million (c.i.f., 1995) commodities: machinery and parts, consumer durables, foodstuffs, textiles partners: European countries External debt: $100 million (of which $75 million to Russia) Economic aid: recipient: ODA, $14 million (1993) note: commitments, 1992-95, $1,000 million ($185 million in disbursements); wheat from Turkey Currency: 1 manat = 100 gopik Exchange rates: manats per US$1 - 4,375 (April 1996), 4,500 (April 1995), 4,168 (end of December 1994) Fiscal year: calendar year
Transportation
Railways: total: 2,125 km in common carrier service; does not include industrial lines
broad gauge: 2,125 km 1.520-m gauge (1,278 km electrified) (1993) Highways: total: 36,700 km paved: 31,800 km (includes graveled) unpaved: 4,900 km (1990 est.) Pipelines: crude oil 1,130 km; petroleum products 630 km; natural gas 1,240 km Ports: Baku (Baki) Airports: total: 69 with paved runways over 3 047 m: 2 with paved runways 2 438 to 3 047 m: 6 with paved runways 1 524 to 2 437 m: 17 with paved runways 914 to 1 523 m: 3 with paved runways under 914 m: 1 with unpaved runways 914 to 1 523 m: 7 with unpaved runways under 914 m: 33 (1994 est.)
Communications
Telephones: 710,000 (1991 est.) Telephone system: 202,000 persons waiting for telephone installations (January 1991 est.) domestic: telephone service is of poor quali ty and inadequate; a joint venture to establi sh a cellular telephone system in the Baku area was supposed to become oper ational in 1994 international: cable and microwave radio relay connections to former Soviet republics; connection through Moscow international gateway switch to other countries; satellite earth stations - 1 Intelsat and 1 Intersputnik (Intelsat provides service to Turkey and through Turkey to 200 more countries; Intersputnik provides direct service to New York) Radio broadcast stations: AM NA, FM NA, shortwave NA (1 state-owned radio broadcast station) Radios: NA Television broadcast stations: 2 note: domestic and Russian TV programs are received locally and Turkish and Iranian TV is received from an Intelsat satellite through a receive-only earth station Televisions: NA
Defense
Branches: Army, Navy, Air Force, Maritime Border Guard Manpower availability: males age 15-49: 1,952,390 males fit for military service: 1,574,813 males reach military age (18) annually: 68,006 (1996 est.) Defense expenditures: 33.5 billion manats, NA% of GDP (1994); note - conversion of defense expenditures into US dollars using the current exchange rate could produce misleading results
