BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 11. Azerbaijan's state budget revenues doubled in October 2022 compared to one year ago, driven by a surge in energy revenues, Trend reports citing the monthly economic reports of the World Bank (WB) on Azerbaijan.
"Energy revenues increased by 162 percent in nominal terms times year-over-year in October due to soaring profit tax payments from a company operating a major natural gas field. Non-energy revenues increased by 20.8 percent year-over-year in October, in line with the robust activity in non-energy sector," said the report.
WB noted that higher than expected revenues enabled the government to rely less on the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) transfers, which fell by 14 percent year-over-year in the year to date.
"Budget spending rose by 10.6 percent year-over-year in October, driven by a 25 percent year-over-year increase in capital spending and, to a lesser extent, by current spending (up by 5.7 percent year-over-year). Surging revenues drove the fiscal balance to a surplus of 3.4 percent of GDP by end-October 2022," said the WB.