While the oil and gas sector still saw a surplus in its balance of payments, the amount halved to $10.1 billion in 2015 from a year earlier, the bank said on its web site.

   

A crash in oil prices has sent the economy of the third-biggest ex-Soviet oil producer into a crisis and forced the central bank to a series of measures to keep the manat currency from sliding too fast and the banking sector somewhat functioning.

   

The central bank had assumed an average 2015 oil price of $98 per barrel, while crude averaged only half of that last year, or $48 per barrel, the bank said.

   

The bank also said that foreign trade volume of Azerbaijan, where energy accounts for 75 percent of state revenues fell by a third to $25.4 billion, and trade surplus was down to $5.8 billion, from $18.9 billion seen a year earlier.