Macro-economic Trend
The following is a chart of trend of gross domestic product of Azerbaijan at market prices with figures in millions of Manats.
| Year | Gross domestic product | US dollar exchange | Per capita income (as % of USA) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | 10,669,000 | 4,414.14 Manats | 1.13 |
| 2000 | 23,590,500 | 4,473.82 Manats | 1.87 |
| 2005 | 79,378,500 | 4,727.21 Manats | 3.74 |
For purchasing power parity comparisons, the US dollar was exchanged at 1,565.88 Manats only. Currently, the new Manat is in use, with an exchange rate of about 1 manat = $1.10. Mean graduate pay was $5.76 per manhour in 2010.
For more than a century the backbone of the Azerbaijani economy has been petroleum, which represented 10 percent of Azerbaijan’s GDP in 2005, and is projected to double to almost 20 percent of GDP in 2007. Now that Western oil companies are able to tap deepwater oilfields untouched by the Soviets because of poor technology, Azerbaijan is considered one of the most important areas in the world for oil exploration and development. Proven oil reserves in the Caspian Basin, which Azerbaijan shares with Russia, Kazakhstan, Iran, and Turkmenistan, are comparable in size to the North Sea, although exploration is still in the early stages.
Read more about this topic: Economy Of Azerbaijan