Baku News

BAKU, July 19 (RIA Novosti) - Azerbaijan's budget surplus totaled about $220 million in January-June 2006 and inflation stood at 5.6%, the head of the country's statistics committee said Tuesday. Arif Valiyev told a news conference that budget revenues in the first six months of 2006 had grown 76.2% year-on-year to 1.292 billion manat ($1.45 bln), with spending rising 52.2% in the same period to 1.118 billion manat ($1.23 bln). Azerbaijan's population stood at 8.3 million as of July 1, with a working population of 3.9 million, or 47%., he said, adding that the employed services had officially registered 55,400 jobseekers. He said the average monthly salary had reached 142 manat (about $156), up 20.4% year-on-year. Valiyev said Tuesday that Azerbaijan's gross domestic product totaled over $7.81 billion in January-June 2006, up 36.3% year-on-year, with GDP per capita growing 34.7% y-o-y to $944.