Azerbaijan's economy demonstrates stable growth, finance minister says

Azerbaijan's economy is demonstrating stable growth, Minister of Finance Sahil Babayev said at the Second Azerbaijan International Investment Forum (AIIF 2026) in Baku, Report informs.

According to him, the share of the non-oil and gas sector in GDP currently exceeds 70%.

The minister noted that Azerbaijan plans to reduce the state budget revenue dependence on the oil and gas sector to 30% by the end of 2030.

"If we look at the results of the five-year period from 2021 to 2025, the growth of Azerbaijan's non-oil and gas GDP exceeded 6% annually. This provided us with very strong momentum in terms of economic transformation. About 20 years ago, the majority of GDP - more than half - was generated by the oil and gas sector," the minister noted.

According to him, over the past two years, Azerbaijan has managed to reduce transfers from the State Oil Fund (SOFAZ) to the state budget by approximately 20%, with plans to decrease them by an additional 20% over the next three years. "The goal is to bring budget revenue dependence on oil down to 30%, while 70% of revenues will be generated by the non-oil sector," the minister emphasized.

"A sustainable reduction of the non-oil deficit and maintaining the public debt-to-GDP ratio at a stable level remain priorities [for the Ministry of Finance], while significant strategic foreign exchange reserves reinforce Azerbaijan's resilience to external shocks. Strong fiscal buffers and macroeconomic stability have enabled the country to obtain investment-grade sovereign credit ratings from international agencies, particularly Fitch Ratings and Moody's," Babayev added.