BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 8. The World Bank has
revised forecasts for Azerbaijan’s real GDP growth for 2026 and
2027, Trend reports.


In its Europe and Central Asia (ECA) Economic Update, the Bank
now expects the country’s real GDP growth at 2 percent for 2026 and
1.8 percent for 2027, up by 0.2 and 0.1 percentage points as
compared to the January projection.


The World Bank estimates that Azerbaijan’s real GDP growth was
1.4 percent in 2025.


“In Azerbaijan, the normalization of investment spending due to
tighter fiscal policy and a sharp contraction in oil production
reduced growth to 1.4 percent in 2025, nearly three times lower
than in 2024,” the report reads.







Moreover, the Bank notes that real credit growth eased slightly
last year as rapid expansions cooled in Central Asia and the South
Caucasus.


“Tighter macroprudential measures in some countries, including
Azerbaijan and Georgia, and more restrictive monetary policy (as in
Kazakhstan and Romania) dampened consumer lending. However, real
credit growth doubled in Uzbekistan compared to 2024, boosted by
policies encouraging microloans and loans for entrepreneurship,”
the report says.