Part 51

Diplomatic representation in US: chief of mission: Ambassador Hafiz Mir Jalal PASHAYEV chancery: (temporary) Suite 700, 927 15th Street NW, Washington, DC 20005 telephone: (202) 842-0001 FAX: (202) 842-0004

US diplomatic representation: chief of mission: Ambassador Richard D. KAUZLARICH embassy: Azadliq Prospekti 83, Baku mailing address: use embassy street address telephone: (9412) 96-00-19, 98-03-37, 98-03-36, 93-64-80, 96-36-21 FAX: (9412) 98-37-55

Flag: three equal horizontal bands of blue (top), red, and green; a crescent and eight-pointed star in white are centered in red band

Economy -------

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% (1995 est.)

Electricity: capacity: 4,900,000 kW production: 17 billion kWh consumption per capita: 2,200 kWh (1995 est.)

Agriculture: cotton, grain, rice, grapes, fruit, 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.)