WP 92 - An overview of women's work and employment in Azerbaijan

An overview of women’s work and employment in Azerbaijan

world oil prices, will remain crucial in the years ahead. According to the State Statistics Committee (SSC), the
FDI inflow, still USD 3.4 billion in 2008, over 2009 fell by 34% and total investment by 19%. Figures for the
first months of 2010 suggested a rebound, with in January-February 2010 84% growth in FDI compared
with the (very low level of) first two months of 2009. Foreign investments made up 30% of the January-
February total, a preliminary break with the trend that the share of domestic investment in total investments
showed a long-term increase, to 80% over 2009 (website ABC).

For the time being the increase of foreign investment and exports has served the expansion of the in-
vestment budget, enabling the decrease the impact of the worldwide crisis. A World Bank research note as
of July 2009 stated: “The global economic crisis is exposing households in virtually all developing countries
to increased risk of poverty and hardship”, and adding “While in the short-run, the non-poor may be the
most affected by the crisis, experience from past economic and financial crises suggests that the adverse
impacts are likely to spread in the medium-term to poor households.” This note ranked Azerbaijan among
the 49 countries with medium exposure to the crisis, showing decelerating growth. Yet, it is also rated in
the category of countries with “more fiscal capacity”, able to expand their fiscal deficits as to counteract
the poverty effects of the crisis (Cord et al 2009). It seems that the Azerbaijani authorities have well man-
aged the crisis and used fical deficits carefully; clearly the macro-economic effects of the crisis have been
limited. Contrary to classical economic wisdom, it may have been of help that, according to the IMF (2008,
9), “The financial system is underdeveloped”. The balance act in limiting the inflation danger obviously has
been successful: a prominent Azeri economist expects inflation to decrease in 2010 to vary between 3 and
5% (NN 2010c).

Nevertheless, there is evidence that the country’s manufacturing industry has suffered from the global
crisis rather directly. Between May 2008 and July 2009, 10,800 manufacturing workers had become redun-
dant (InformContact, July-September 2009). Both employment and working hours figures suggest that in
particular the manufacture of textile and leather goods, basic metals, and machinery and equipment produc-
tion have been hit (see also section 2.8.2). It seems that the crisis accelerated developments already under
way, in particular diminishing women’s jobs in sub-sectors like textiles, garment and leather. As a result, male
industrial employment between 2000 and 2008 slightly grew while female employment in manufacturing was
halved, from about 60,000 to 30,000 (ILO Laborsta; SSC via AGIC website).

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