EU, CIS share in Azerbaijan’s foreign trade continue to grow

Azerbaijan, Baku, August 21 /Trend, A.Akhundov/ The share of the European Union (EU) and CIS countries in Azerbaijan's foreign trade turnover continued to grow in 2013. According to data from the Azerbaijani State Customs Committee for January-July, Azerbaijan increased trade with EU countries by 9.3 per cent and with CIS countries by 19.8 per cent, while the annual growth of total commodity turnover was 3.42 per cent. Commodity turnover with other states has decreased by 4.62 per cent in a year. The total volume of Azerbaijan's foreign trade turnover amounted to $20.05 billion in January-July, 2013, around $8.67 billion of which fell to trade with EU countries, about $2.3 billion with the CIS and $9.08 billion with other countries. This means that currently around 43.2 per cent of Azerbaijan's trade turnover falls to the EU compared to 41.3 per cent in early 2013 and 40.97 per cent in January-July, 2012, 11.5 per cent to the CIS (10.82 per cent, 9.91 per cent), 45.3 per cent to other countries (47.88 per cent, 49.12 per cent). Azerbaijan carried out about $13.86 billion worth of export operations in January-July, which is 1.55 per cent lower compared to the same period of 2012. Import amounted to $6.18 billion which is 16.63 per cent more compared to the same period of 2012. Therefore a positive balance of $7.7 billion was formed in foreign trade operations.