OREANDA-NEWS. January 22, 2009. Communication sector sales in Azerbaijan totaled USD 1.19 bn for 2008 in accord with average exchange rate for the reported period.

Rashad Nabiyev, the head of the Ministry’s Department of Finance, Accounting & Economic Analysis, says that in 2008 communications sector rendered services for AZN 990.5 million that is 28.1% more versus the 2007 figure.

“Of them 71.8% of services were rendered by cellular operators (growth of 30.1%). The population (AZN 703.5 million; rise: 31.7% versus 2007) was the main consumer of rendered services,” Nabiyev said.

ICT sector pace growth totaled 28.4%, including growth of 28.7% in telecommunications sector, 25.3% in sector of information technologies and 6.5% in postal sector.

In 2008 despite 10.8% growth of GDP, the shard of telecommunications sector reached 1.9% of country’s GDP. 80.3% of ICT earnings fell on the share of non-stat sector.