10:55 - 22.04.2020

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April 22, Fineko/abc.az. According to the forecast of the International Monetary Fund, while the global economy will shrink by 3% in 2020 as a result of the pandemic, and the economy of oil-exporting countries in the Middle East and Central Asia - by 3.9%, the Azerbaijani economy will shrink by only 2.2%.

ABC.AZ reports that the above-mentioned statement was made by Vusal Gasimli, the executive director of the Center for Analysis of Economic Reforms & Communications.

He noted that among the 11 countries exporting oil and gas in the Middle East and Central Asia, Azerbaijan is one of the three countries whose economies are least affected by the pandemic: "Azerbaijan is also reducing oil production within OPEC+ and losing from low oil prices, just due to the rapid growth of the non-oil industry under the leadership of President Ilham Aliyev and effective anti-crisis measures of the government, the economic downturn in our country is prevented. Suffice it to say that one of the countries with the smallest difference in the forecasts of economic growth given by the IMF before and after the pandemic in the former Soviet Union is Azerbaijan, that is, the pandemic has had less impact on the economic growth of our country than on other countries."