He made the remarks at a plenary session of the Azerbaijani parliament in Baku Dec. 6 in discussions on the draft state budget and the concept of socio-economic development for 2017 and the next three years.

Earlier, Rustamov noted that Azerbaijan’s exports will be about $12.8 billion by late 2016.

"The export of non-oil products and services has declined by 20 percent since early 2016,” he said, adding that non-oil imports are currently much higher than the exports.

In January-October 2016, Azerbaijan’s trade turnover with 174 foreign economic partner countries amounted to $14.15 billion, which is 23.22 percent less than in the same period last year, according to the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan’s exports reached almost $7.2 billion (a 34.48-percent decrease for the year), while imports stood at $6.96 billion (a 6.64-percent decrease).