BAKU, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Oil-rich Azerbaijan has calculatednext year's budget based on an oil price of $90 per barrel, downfrom $100 this year, and predicted a significant fall in thesector's contribution to gross domestic product.
The draft 2015 budget approved by the government andsubmitted to parliament on Friday, foresees economic growth of4.4 percent, up from 3.6 percent expected this year and downfrom 5.8 percent last year. But the oil sector is expected todecline to 34.9 percent of GDP from 40.4 percent in 2014.
Brent crude rose above $86 a barrel on Friday, bouncing offnear four-year lows. But oil has lost more than a fifth of itsvalue since June and many experts see the downward trendcontinuing due to weak growth, geopolitical risks and littlesign of producers intervening to support prices.
Economic growth in the former Soviet republic has sloweddramatically since the oil-fuelled boom of 2003-2007, when theeconomy expanded by an average of 21 percent per year.
Total oil output grew last year for the first time since2011.
Crude oil and condensate production in Azerbaijan fell to32.1 million tonnes in January-September from 32.8 milliontonnes in the same period last year, a source at the StateStatistics Committee said this week, driven by declines atfields operated by BP.
The draft budget see total government revenues of 19.4billion manats ($24.7 billion), up from 18.4 billion manatsexpected this year, and spending of 21.1 billion manats, up from20.1 billion manats in 2014.
($=0.784 manats) (Reporting by Nailia Bagirova; Writing by Margarita Antidze;Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
BP (BP.)
