Azerbaijan's Economy in the Post-Pandemic Period : Challenges and Prospects

On July 22, 2022, the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan approved the "Strategy for the socio-economic development of the Republic of Azerbaijan for 2022-2026". On August 2, 2022, the Cabinet of Ministers issued an Order to ensure the execution of the Presidential Order. In the article (Ibadoghlu, 2022) on strategy evaluation , we analyzed its strengths and weaknesses. This article is about internal and external factors affecting the implementation of the Strategy in a retrospective and prospective context. We assess global challenges and risks based on current trends in the economy.The changes in the energy and capital markets as a result of the devaluation of the national currency in 2015, the global pandemic in 2020-2021, and the Russian military intervention in Ukraine in 2022 had a significant impact on the economy of Azerbaijan. Since this year, because of all this, several trends have been observed in the economy. Among them, special attention is drawn to the increase of the share of the oil and gas sector in GDP in the short-term period, oil and gas sector products in exports (1), and in the medium term - a decrease in investment in GDP (2), and in the long term, an increase in the likelihood of Azerbaijan falling into the middle-income trap (3)