WB: Liberalization of services sector may generate additional 3% of GDP growth for Azerbaijan

Implementing reforms to liberalize the services sector in Azerbaijan may provide an additional gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 3%, World Bank Senior Economist for Azerbaijan Steve Loris Gui-Diby stated during "Fitch on Azerbaijan 2026" in Baku, Report informs.

"The services sector has served as the main driver of Azerbaijan's economic growth over the past ten years. In the recent period, growth in the export of digital services has also been recorded. Nevertheless, we believe this indicator still falls short of its potential due to regulatory barriers in services trade. Analysis of the regulatory environment demonstrated that implementing reforms and removing these restrictions could yield an additional 3% to GDP," the World Bank representative emphasized.

He explained that this refers to legally established restrictions contained in the current regulatory framework, whereas taking into account the practice of their actual application (de facto), the positive economic effect could be even more significant.

Gui-Diby drew attention to the fact that the country's current economic growth rate stands at around 1.2–1.3%, driven mainly by the non-oil sector, whereas several years ago this figure reached 4–5%.