Azerbaijan. Since gaining its independence, companies have invested $174 billion into Azerbaijan. Foreign investment accounts for around half of that amount. In 2008, Azerbaijan was cited as the top reformer by the World Bank's Doing Business report: According to World Bank's Doing Business report 2019, Azerbaijan improved its position in the Ease of doing business rank from 57 to 25, as well as ranked 4th among the top 10 improvers. Implementing a record number of reforms mainly involving institutional changes have made it easier to do business in Azerbaijan in 2017–2018 period, as a result time and cost to get construction permit reduced significantly (time by 80 days and cost by 12.563 AZN), process of connecting electricity grid rationalized, as well as getting credit simplified. Other economic indicators Data from CIA World Factbook unless noted otherwise Investment (gross fixed) 17% of GDP (2011 est.) Household income or consumption by percentage share lowest 10%: 3.4% highest 10%: 27.4% (2008) Inflation rate (consumer prices) 1.1% (2012 est.) Agriculture utilized agricultural land: (2011) total wood resources: 144,2 million cubic metres crops: cotton, grain, rice, grapes, fruit, vegetables, tea, tobacco livestock products: beef, mutton, poultry, milk, eggs Industrial production growth rate -3% (2011 est.) Electricity production: 22,55 billion kWh (2008) consumption: 18,8 billion kWh (2008) exports: 812 million kWh (2008) imports: 596 million kWh (2008) Current account balance $11,12 billion (2011 est.) Exports commodities petroleum and natural gas, petroleum products, oilfield equipment; steel, iron ore, cement; chemicals, petrochemicals, textiles, machinery, cotton, foodstuffs. Reserves of foreign exchange and gold $7,146 billion (2011 est.) Debt external $3.89 billion (2011 est.) Currency 1 Manat = 100 gepik Exchange rates Azerbaijani manat per US dollar 1.7 (for 22 November 2020) Azerbaijani manat per Euro 2.01 (for 22 November 2020) Fiscal year Calendar year See also Azerbaijan and the International Monetary Fund List of companies of Azerbaijan Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Petroleum industry in Azerbaijan Agriculture in Azerbaijan Tourism in Azerbaijan Baku Military of Azerbaijan Judiciary of Azerbaijan References Further reading Habibov, Nazim: "Poverty in Azerbaijan" in the Caucasus Analytical Digest No. 34 External links Hübner, Gerald: "As If Nothing Happened? How Azerbaijan's Economy Manages to Sail Through Stormy Weather" in the Caucasus Analytical Digest No. 18 Azerbaijan