rsal at age 18
Elections:
National Parliament:
last held NA September 1990 (next expected to be held late 1992); results -
seats - (360 total) Communists 280, Democratic Bloc 45 (grouping of
opposition parties), other 15, vacant 20; note - these figures are
approximate
President:
held 8 September 1991 (next to be held 7 June 1992); results - Ebulfez
ELCIBEY (6,390 unofficial)
Other political or pressure groups:
Self-proclaimed Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh Republic
Member of:
CIS, CSCE, IMF, OIC, UN, UNCTAD
Diplomatic representation:
NA
US:
Ambassador (vacant); Robert MILES, Charge d'Affaires; Embassy at Hotel
Intourist (telephone 8-011-7-8922-91-79-56) plus 8 hours; (mailing address
is APO New York is 09862); telephone NA

:Azerbaijan Government

Flag:
three equal horizontal bands of blue (top), red, and green; a crescent and
eight-pointed star in white are centered in red band

:Azerbaijan Economy

Overview:
Azerbaijan is less developed industrially than either Armenia or Georgia,
the other Transcaucasian states. It resembles the Central Asian states in
its majority Muslim population, high structural unemployment, and low
standard of living. The economy's most prominent products are cotton, oil,
and gas. Production from the Caspian oil and gas field has been in decline
for several years. With foreign assistance, the oil industry might generate
the funds needed to spur industrial development. However, civil unrest,
marked by armed conflict in the Nagorno-Karabakh region between Muslim
Azeris and Christian Armenians, makes foreign investors wary. Azerbaijan
accounts for 1.5% to 2% of the capital stock and output of the former Soviet
Union. Although immediate economic prospects are not favorable because of
civil strife, lack of economic reform, political disputes about new economic
arrangements, and the skittishness of foreign investors, Azerbaijan's
economic performance was the best of all former Soviet republics in 1991
largely because of its reliance on domestic resources for industrial output.
GDP:
$NA, per capita $NA; real growth rate --0.7% (1991)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
87% (1991)
Unemployment rate:
NA%
Budget:
revenues $NA; expenditures $NA, including capital expenditures of $NA (1992)
Exports:
$780 million (f.o.b., 1991)
commodities:
oil and