President Aliyev: Azerbaijan’s reserves dwarf foreign debt, surpass level by 18-fold

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev has detailed the country’s strong macroeconomic position and long-term development priorities, highlighting fiscal stability, economic diversification, and expanding energy capacity during his speech at the Azerbaijan–Latvia business forum.

Speaking at the Azerbaijan-Latvia business forum, the president said that the country has significantly reduced its foreign debt burden and achieved key fiscal targets, Caliber.Az reports per Azertag.

“Reduction of foreign debt, I think this plan is done. We have a foreign debt which is equal to 6.1% of our GDP,” Aliyev noted.

“Our currency and gold reserves exceed the foreign debt by more than 18 times. So in other words, we could reduce our foreign commitments to zero within probably a couple of months,” the head of state pointed out, adding that there is a big demand for additional investments.

Touching on structural reforms, the Azerbaijani leader stressed that diversification has already become a defining feature of the national economy.

“We tried in Azerbaijan hard in order to transform the country from being purely dependent on oil and gas into a country which can be proud of the process of diversification of our economy,” President Ilham Aliyev said.

“If you look at the structure of our GDP, we see rapid growth during the last 4–5 years. The share of non-oil industry in our GDP grew from 50 to more than 70%, and it continues. So this means that diversification of the economy is already a reality,” the head of state emphasised.

Highlighting the scale of capital inflows, President Ilham Aliyev pointed to decades of sustained investment, both domestic and foreign, as a key driver of economic transformation.

“During the last 20 years we had over 350 billion dollars of investments in our economy, almost half—$170 billion—in investments from foreign sources,” Aliyev said.

“So an investment-friendly business climate was also one of the targets in front of us, and it has mostly been achieved,” the Azerbaijani leader emphasised.

Addressing the energy transition agenda, the president outlined ambitious renewable energy targets backed by binding agreements.

“Our plan, which is based not only on our aspirations but also on signed, legally binding contracts, is to have 8 gigawatts of solar, wind, and hydro power by 2032, and this is absolutely realistic,” Aliyev stressed.

“We will largely substitute natural gas, which we use for electricity production, with renewables. This will allow us to save several billion cubic meters of gas, which is so needed now on international markets,” Aliyev stated.

At the same time, he noted that natural gas production continues to expand, requiring parallel growth in non-energy sectors to maintain balance.

“Now we are actively working on diversification of our exports. Although it will be difficult to do because production of natural gas in Azerbaijan is growing and will grow, and the biggest part of the gas we produce is exported,” the president said.

Pointing out that the majority of the gas produced by Azerbaijan is exported, the head of state noted that non-oil- and gas-related industry and economy have to match the growing production profile and the growing demand in the international markets, primarily European.

Emphasising Azerbaijan’s position in global energy markets, President Ilham Aliyev highlighted the country’s extensive export geography, particularly across Europe.

“It was needed always during the last several years, and during the last couple of months even more. And the plan is to increase production and definitely to increase exports. Today, 10 members of the European Union are receiving natural gas from Azerbaijan. The total number of countries is 16. And by this parameter, we are number one in the world,” he said.

“We are not the largest producer and exporter; there are much bigger players, but among countries that export gas by pipelines, with respect to geography of supply, we are number one,” the President of Azerbaijan stated.

By Jeyhun Aghazada