Imports of Jewels Increased 20 Times

Baku / 17.12.18 / Turan: The solvency of Azerbaijanis, if we compare inflation and wage growth, falls, and the demand for imported gold, precious metals and jewelry rises sharply. This conclusion can be reached by considering the report of the State Customs Committee.

According to this structure, in 2016, imports in the "Pearls, precious stones and metals, and products made from them" product group for the first 9 months of 2016 were worth $ 23.3 million, and for the first 9 months of 2017, 25.5 million. For the same period of 2018, it unexpectedly increased by a factor of 20 to 477 million dollars. As a result, while in 2017 the share of these goods in imports was only 0.4%, this year it rose to 5.2%.

"World history, probably, does not know such a jump in imports," the economist Rovshan Agayev, who examined the imports of this group of goods, estimated the figures. He believes that if the majority of the population in the country cannot earn even the purchase of conditional food basket goods, it means that such a jump in imports of goods for luxurious life may indicate two phenomena: in previous years, customs officers hid the import of jewelry, and this year to present a real report, or due to restrictions on the export of capital abroad, people who had accumulated funds illegally began to buy precious metals and jewelry in large quantities.

However, the export of gold from Azerbaijan is also growing sharply. In the first quarter of 2018, gold exports increased 2.48 times, according to the State Statistics Committee. AzerGold explains the increase in gold exports with the fact that since 2017 they have begun to export precious metal. By the end of 2017, 61.6% of gold exports in nominal terms, as well as 5% of non-oil exports accounted for AzerGold.

If to indicate in absolute values, in 2017 Azerbaijan exported 3,361 kg of gold to the world markets in the amount of $ 139.3 million. In 2016, the export of gold from Azerbaijan amounted to 1909 kg in the amount of 76.8 million dollars. That is, in 2017, gold exports in quantitative terms increased by 76%, and in value terms - by 1.8 times," reported the government.

There is a significant imbalance between the import and export of gold, precious metals and products from them, as well as, respectively, the acquisition of foreign currency by the country and its export to import goods of this group. In January-September 2018, the import of precious metals and products was worth $ 477 million. At the same time, for the same period of 2018, raw gold worth $ 93 million was exported from Azerbaijan, and in 2017 Azerbaijan"s revenues from gold exports (3,360.59 kg) amounted to $ 139.3 million. Import exceeds export by 3.4 times, respectively, the efforts of AzerGold and Azerbaijan International Mining Company cover more than a third of the currency exported from Azerbaijan to import gold, other precious metals and jewelry into the country. -0-