Azerbaijan's public debt has decreased to 24.1 billion manats as of June 1, 2026.
According to Modern.az, this was stated by Finance Minister Sahil Babayev during the discussion of the draft law "On the Execution of the State Budget of the Republic of Azerbaijan for 2025" at today's meeting of the Milli Majlis Economic Policy, Industry and Entrepreneurship Committee.
The minister stated that as of January 1, 2026, the public debt was 26 billion manats, or 20.1 percent of GDP. This indicator is 1.6 percentage points lower compared to the beginning of 2025.
Sahil Babayev noted that the volume of public debt continued to decrease:
"As of June 1, 2026, the public debt is 24.1 billion manats, or 18.4 percent of GDP. This indicator shows that Azerbaijan is one of the countries with the lowest public debt to GDP ratio in the world."
According to the minister, as of January 1, 2026, the debt portfolio consisted of 17.8 billion manats of domestic public debt and 8.2 billion manats of foreign public debt. As of June 1 of the current year, the domestic public debt decreased to 16.2 billion manats, and the foreign public debt to 7.9 billion manats.
The Minister of Finance also emphasized that the sensitivity of public debt to external risks has decreased.
"The average repayment period of bonds increased 2.2 times during the year, reaching 3.3 years. Currently, this indicator is 3.83 years. At the same time, the share of 5-year and longer-term bonds in the portfolio increased from 0.6 percent to 49 percent," he said.
Sahil Babayev also drew attention to the increase in Azerbaijan's strategic foreign exchange reserves.
According to the minister, as of June 1, 2026, the volume of strategic foreign exchange reserves reached 88.4 billion dollars.
"These funds exceed the foreign public debt by 19.2 times. This is one of the important indicators of the country's financial stability," the minister noted.
S. Babayev added that in 2025, a transfer of 8.5 billion dollars was made from the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan to the state budget, and this indicator was executed at the forecast level.
"In the medium term, our goal is to reduce the budget's dependence on oil revenues. Within this framework, it is planned to reduce transfers to 6 billion dollars by 2029," he emphasized.
The minister stated that last year the state budget was executed with a surplus, and the higher-than-forecast revenue allowed for the formation of a positive budget balance.
According to him, the level of financing current expenditures from non-oil revenues has already reached 92 percent, and this indicator is targeted to reach 100 percent in 2029.
