Government decided to save Oil Fund’s resources

In 2016 transfers from the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) to the state budget are expected to be 6 billion AZN, down 4,388,000,000 AZN (42.2%) against 2015, reads the drafts of the state and consolidated budgets of Azerbaijan for the next year released by the Finance Ministry.

According to the draft budget, in 2016 SOFAZ’s incomes are forecast to be 6,711,600,000 AZN, down 3.53 billion AZN (34.5%) against the forecast for 2015.

SOFAZ’s expenses are forecast to be 8.2 billion AZN, down 33.4% (4.1 billion AZN) against the one expected in 2015.

“73.2% of SOFAZ’s expenses (6 billion AZN) will be transferred to the state budget, 26.2% (2.15 billion AZN) will be used to fund several infrastructure projects and 49.5 million AZN (0.6%) will be transferred to fund education of Azerbaijani youth abroad,” reads the draft project.

Transfers from the Oil Fund will comprise 41.2% of the state budget incomes.

The Azerbaijani government has three scenarios of forecasts of the state budget and socio-economic development of the country for 2016 based on the oil price within the range between $40.00 and $60.00: the basic scenario ($50.00 per barrel), optimistic scenario ($60.00 per barrel) and pessimistic scenario ($40.00 per barrel).

Oil Fund’s budget (in million AZN):

* By July 1, 2015 assets of the State Oil Fund totaled $35.8 billion.