AZE.US
Azerbaijani politician and REAL party co-founder Ilgar Mammadov has sharply criticized the government’s economic policy after official figures showed the country’s economy recorded 0.0% growth in the first five months of 2026.
In a Facebook post, Mammadov said Azerbaijan had “not become richer by a single kopek” since January, arguing that the official data showed the economy standing still while neighboring countries in the South Caucasus were growing much faster.
“According to official statistics, our production grew by 0% over these five months. It stood still,” Mammadov wrote.
Azerbaijan’s gross domestic product reached 51.78 billion manats ($30.46 billion) in January-May, according to the State Statistical Committee. The oil and gas sector declined by 1.0%, while the non-oil and gas sector grew by only 0.4%.
Mammadov said the figures confirmed warnings made by the Republican Alternative, or REAL, party for years, arguing that Azerbaijan was falling further behind its neighbors.
He also questioned why Azerbaijan’s oil and gas income had declined at a time when global energy markets were supposed to support producer countries.
“If production in our country has fallen so much that even higher prices no longer allow Azerbaijan to become richer from oil and gas, what conclusion should we draw?” Mammadov wrote. “Or has black accounting appeared in the sale of oil and gas, and we simply do not know about it?”
The REAL co-founder also criticized the government’s explanation that the weak growth figures were linked to the delay of one or two state projects.
According to Mammadov, such an explanation points to a deeper structural problem.
“If our economy depends on one or two state projects just to cross zero and move into positive territory, it means there is no economy,” he wrote. “Excessive state control and interference have destroyed it.”
Mammadov argued that the authorities were mistaken in trying to manage the economy mainly through decrees, decisions and policies issued by the Finance Ministry, the Central Bank, the Economy Ministry, the Cabinet of Ministers and the presidential administration.
He said the first institutions that must be fixed for economic recovery are the courts and law enforcement agencies.
“The first institution, the first sphere that must be put in order for the sake of the economy, is the court system and law enforcement,” Mammadov wrote. “Without fixing them, while the air of freedom that business and ordinary people want to breathe remains poisoned, there will never be an economic revival.”
Mammadov ended his post with a direct political appeal, urging voters to defeat the ruling New Azerbaijan Party in the next election and support REAL.
“No one has shown the reason for this decline better than us, more accurately than us and for so long,” he wrote. “Economy is REALity.”
AZE.US