OREANDA-NEWS. September 15, 2008. According to the National Bank that runs payment balance statistics, the country’s key trade partners in the first half of 2008 were the United States, the UK and Israel.

The Bank reports that for the 1st half of the year Azerbaijan’s foreign trade turnover totaled USD 20.448 bn versus USD 27.314 bn in 2007 with import of USD 3.215 bn and export of USD 17.233 bn (USD 6.045 bn and USD 21.269 bn in 2007 respectively) and positive balance USD 14.018 bn (USD 15.224 bn). Turnover with the CIS counterparts made USD 1.648 bn (USD 2.939 bn), including export of USD 779 million and import of USD 869 million (USD 1.182 bn and USD 1.757 bn); deficit made USD 90 million (USD 575 million) and non-CIS countries USD 18.8 bn, including export for USD 16.454 bn, import for USD 2.346 bn (surplus of USD 14.108 bn versus USD 24.375 bn, USD 20.087 bn; import USD 4.288 bn; surplus USD 15.799 bn respectively).

The US became the main trade partner with turnover of USD 3.879 bn (export of USD 3.779 bn, import of USD 100 million and surplus of USD 3.679 bn). Then follow the UK with USD 2.586 bn (USD 2.4 bn, USD 183 million, +USD 2.22 bn), Israel USD 1.78 bn (USD 1.75 bn, USD 31 million, +USD 1.7 bn), Italy USD 1.47 bn (USD 1.396 bn, USD 77 million, +USD 1.319 bn), Turkey USD 1.29 bn (USD 906 million, USD 388 million, +USD 518 million), France USD 1.022 bn (USD 960 million, USD 62 million, +USD 898 million), Japan USD 1.005 bn (USD 854 million, USD 151 million, +USD 703 million), India USD 872 million (USD 817 million, USD 55 million, +USD 762 million), Russia USD 752 million (USD 272 million, USD 480 million, -USD 208 million), Norway USD 532 million (USD 527 million, USD 5 million, +USD 522 million).