In the first half of 2026, the volume of remittances received by Azerbaijan increased by 40 percent compared with the same period last year, reaching $748.464 million. This was announced by Samir Nasirov, director of the Statistics Department at the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA), at a briefing dedicated to the presentation of the country's balance of payments for the first half of 2026.
According to Nasirov, the net inflow of remittances under the "secondary income" item amounted to $540 million.
"The volume of remittances received by the country increased by 40 percent and amounted to $748 million. The main share of these inflows came from Russia, Turkey, the US, Ireland and Georgia. At the same time, the volume of remittances sent from the country decreased by 13 percent and amounted to $207.878 million. The main destinations for such transfers are Turkey, the US, Russia and Georgia," the department director noted.
Turning to the dynamics of the services balance, the CBA representative noted that the deficit of $1 billion in this area was driven in particular by construction and business services in the oil and gas sector.
"Despite this, a surplus of $941 million in transport services and $138 million in tourism services significantly reduced the said deficit. The deficit in the primary income balance decreased by 16 percent and amounted to about $907–908 million," Nasirov said.
He also reported that the deficit on the capital and financial account amounted to $3 billion. According to him, this deficit was influenced by an increase in external financial assets of $3.3 billion and a rise in external financial liabilities of approximately $300 million.
At the same time, Nasirov noted an increase of $1.4 billion in the realized portion of the balance of payments reserve assets.
"Our strategic foreign exchange reserves at the end of six months amounted to $85.8 billion. At the end of eight months, this figure increased further and reached $90.8 billion," the department director emphasized.
