Azerbaijan To Boost Defense Spending in 2013

DefenseNews.com
Nov 30 2012

Azerbaijan To Boost Defense Spending in 2013

BAKU, Azerbaijan – Azerbaijan’s parliament approved on Nov. 30 a 2013
budget that forecasts slowing growth and high inflation but also
boosts defense spending amid a military standoff with neighbor
Armenia.

The budget forecasts that the oil-rich Caucasus country’s gross
domestic product will grow by 5.3 percent next year against an
expected 5.7-percent growth rate in 2012.

Inflation is forecast at 5.7 percent.

The latest figures released by the World Bank offer a less optimistic
picture – predicting the country’s economy would grow by only 3.5
percent in 2013.

Defense and military spending will rise by 0.9 percent to more than
1.5 billion Azerbaijani manats ($1.9 billion/1.4 billion euros) amid
the continuing conflict with Armenia over disputed region of Nagorny
Karabakh.

Total budget revenues for 2013 are predicted to be 19.1 billion manats
($24.3 billion, 18.7 billion euros), with expenditure at 19.8 billion
manats ($25.2 billion, 19.4 billion euros) or 35.3 percent of GDP.

A largely Muslim country of 9.1 million people strategically located
between Russia and Iran, Azerbaijan is a key partner in projects
delivering energy from the Caspian Sea area to the West via pipelines
through Turkey, bypassing Russia.

It is locked in a long-simmering conflict with Armenia over Karabakh,
where ethnic Armenian separatists backed by Yerevan seized control
during a war in the 1990s that left some 30,000 dead. No peace deal
has been signed.

From: A. Papazian