Overview:
Azerbaijan is less developed industrially than either Armenia or
Georgia, the other Transcaucasian states. It resembles the Central
Asian states in its majority Muslim population, high structural
unemployment, and low standard of living. The economy's most prominent
products are oil, cotton, and gas. Production from the Caspian oil and
gas field has been in decline for several years. With foreign
assistance, the oil industry might generate the funds needed to spur
industrial development. However, civil unrest, marked by armed
conflict in the Nagorno-Karabakh region between Muslim Azeris and
Christian Armenians, makes foreign investors wary. Azerbaijan
accounted for 1.5% to 2% of the capital stock and output of the former
Soviet Union. Azerbaijan shares all the formidable problems of the
ex-Soviet republics in making the transition from a command to a
market economy, but its considerable energy resources brighten its
prospects somewhat. Old economic ties and structures have yet to be
replaced. A particularly galling constraint on economic revival is the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, said to consume 25% of Azerbaijan's
economic resources.
National product:
GDP - purchasing power equivalent - $15.5 billion (1993 estimate from
the UN International Comparison Program, as extended to 1991 and
published in the World Bank's World Development Report 1993; and as
extrapolated to 1993 using official Azerbaijani statistics, which are
very uncertain because of major economic changes since 1990)
National product real growth rate:
-13.3% (1993 est.)
National product per capita:
$2,040 (1993 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
20% per month (average 1993); above 50% per month (February 1994)
Unemployment rate:
0.7% includes officially registered unemployed; also large numbers of
underemployed workers (December 1993)
Budget:
revenues:
$NA
expenditures:
$NA, including capital expenditures of $NA
Exports:
$355 million to outside the FSU countries (f.o.b., 1993)
commodities:
oil and gas, chemicals, oilfield equipment, textiles, cotton (1991)
partners:
mostly CIS and European countries
Imports:
$240 million from outside the FSU countries (c.i.f., 1993)
commodities:
machinery and parts, consumer durables, foodstuffs, textiles (1991)
partners:
European countries
External debt:
$NA
Industrial production:
growth rate -7% (1993)
Electricity:
capacity:
6,025,000 kW
production:
22,300 kWh
consumption per capita:
2,990 kWh (1992)
Industries:
petroleum and natural gas, petroleum products, oilfield equipment;
steel, iron ore, cement; chemicals and petrochemicals; textiles
iculture:
cotton, grain, rice, grapes, fruit, vegetables, tea, tobacco; cattle,
pigs, sheep and goats
Illicit drugs:
illicit cultivator of cannabis and opium poppy; mostly for CIS
consumption; limited government eradication program; transshipment
point for illicit drugs to Western Europe
Economic aid:
recipient:
wheat from Turkey
Currency:
1 manat = 100 gopik
Exchange rates:
NA
Fiscal year:
calendar year
@Azerbaijan, Communications
Railroads:
2,090 km; does not include industrial lines (1990)
Highways:
total:
36,700 km
paved or graveled:
31,800 km
unpaved:
earth 4,900 km (1990)
Pipelines:
crude oil 1,130 km; petroleum products 630 km; natural gas 1,240 km
Ports:
inland - Baku (Baky)
Airports:
total:
65
usable:
33
with permanent-surface runways:
26
with runways over 3,659 m:
0
with runways 2,440-3,659 m:
8
with runways 1,220-2,439 m:
23
Telecommunications:
domestic telephone service is of poor quality and inadequate; 710,000
domestic telephone lines [density - 9 lines per 100 persons (1991)],
202,000 persons waiting for telephone installations (January 1991);
connections to other former USSR republics by cable and microwave and
to other countries via the Moscow international gateway switch;
INTELSAT earth station installed in late 1992 in Baku with Turkish
financial assistance with access to 200 countries through Turkey;
since August 1993 an earth station near Baku has provided direct
communications with New York through Russia's Stationar-11 satellite;
a joint venture to establish a cellular telephone system (Bakcel) in
the Baku area is supposed to become operational in 1994; domestic and
Russian TV programs are received locally and Turkish and Iranian TV is
received from an INTELSAT satellite through a receive-only earth
station
@Azerbaijan, Defense Forces
Branches:
Army, Air Force, Navy, Maritime Border Guard, National Guard, Security
Forces (internal and border troops)
Manpower availability:
males age 15-49 1,884,458; fit for military service 1,525,123; reach
military age (18) annually 68,192 (1994 est.)
Defense expenditures:
2,848 million rubles, NA% of GDP (1992 est.); note - conversion of the
military budget into US dollars using the current exchange rate could
produce misleading results
@The Bahamas, Geography
Location:
Caribbean, in the western North Atlantic Ocean, southeast of Florida
and northwest of Cuba
Map references:
Central America and the Caribbean, North America, Standard Time Zones
of the World
Area:
total area:
13,940 sq km
land area:
10,070 sq km
comparative area:
slightly larger than Connecticut
Land boundaries:
0 km
Coastline:
3,542 km
Maritime claims:
continental shelf:
200-m depth or to depth of exploitation
exclusive fishing zone:
200 nm
territorial sea:
3 nm
International disputes:
none
Climate:
tropical marine; moderated by warm waters of Gulf Stream
Terrain:
long, flat coral formations with some low rounded hills
Natural resources:
salt, aragonite, timber
Land use:
arable land:
1%
permanent crops:
0%
meadows and pastures:
0%
forest and woodland:
32%
other:
67%
Irrigated land:
NA sq km
Environment:
current issues:
NA
natural hazards:
subject to hurricanes and other tropical storms that cause extensive
flood and wind damage
international agreements:
party to - Biodiversity, Climate Change, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the
Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution
Note:
strategic location adjacent to US and Cuba; extensive island chain
@The Bahamas, People
Population:
273,055 (July 1994 est.)
Population growth rate:
1.57% (1994 est.)
Birth rate:
18.86 births/1,000 population (1994 est.)
Death rate:
5.38 deaths/1,000 population (1994 est.)
Net migration rate:
2.24 migrant(s)/1,000 population (1994 est.)
Infant mortality rate:
33.5 deaths/1,000 live births (1994 est.)
Life expectancy at birth:
total population:
71.52 years
male:
67.66 years
female:
75.49 years (1994 est.)
Total fertility rate:
1.88 children born/woman (1994 est.)
Nationality:
noun:
Bahamian(s)
adjective:
Bahamian
Ethnic divisions:
black 85%, white 15%
Religions:
Baptist 32%, Anglican 20%, Roman Catholic 19%, Methodist 6%, Church of
God 6%, other Protestant 12%, none or unknown 3%, other 2%
Languages:
English, Creole (among Haitian immigrants)
Literacy:
age 15 and over but definition of literacy not available (1963 est.)
total population:
90%
male:
90%
female:
89%
Labor force:
127,400
by occupation:
government 30%, hotels and restaurants 25%, business services 10%,
agriculture 5% (1989)
@The Bahamas, Government