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Is it possible to apply Principal Component Analysis (PCA) in the Azerbaijan economy? Before blindly answering the question, careful examination of the collected data and the relevance of the data set to the mentioned analysis should be checked. PCA is a widely used multivariate dimension reduction tool that statistical analysis employs. Nevertheless, its application area is limited. Also, PCA analysis in macroeconomic studies is not much preferred and in Azerbaijan's case, there is not one. To understand this methods' relevance two case studies, namely vegetable and fruit sectors have been chosen. The aim was to quantify the sub-sectoral performance via vegetable and fruit sectors. The collected data set and PCA analysis on it were evaluated from multiple angles to outline the roadmap for future investigations. The author argues that in line with the method's theoretical expectations, Azerbaijan's vegetable and fruit sectors partially fulfill the planned goals of the analysis. This means PCA is a highly useful analytical tool and might produce valuable sub-sectoral performance evaluations in the case of Azerbaijan. According to the produced indices, the vegetable sector performed better than the fruit sector from 1999 until 2015. However, between 2015-2020 fruit sector outperformed the vegetable sector. A similar analysis can be organized among the other sub-sectors or between sectors in the case of the Azerbaijan economy. Furthermore, this working paper embodies experimentation results, not conclusions about the methods' validity and justification. Hence, this work compares three rotations of PCA analysis (Varimax, Quartimax, and Equamax) and constructed indices separately for vegetable and fruit sectors.

Agriculture and agrarian sectors have been gone through the serious transformation process since the collapse of the Soviet Union in Azerbaijan. An ever-growing body of academic literature body investigated the resource curse and Dutch disease theories to conceptualize non-oil sectors in Azerbaijan starting from the late 1990s; however, the unanimous conclusion about the status of agriculture, agrarian sectors or manufacturing is still highly anticipated. Modern statistical techniques and accumulated data on the crucial economic indicators allow us to conceptualize the main trends and dynamics of agriculture and agrarian sectors in the context of resource-richness in Azerbaijan. This paper aims to descriptively investigate the collected data related to agriculture and agrarian sectors. Special emphasis has been put on the theoretical relevance of Dutch disease and resource curse to operationalize the research interest and research question. The findings of the correlation analysis show that there is a positive, significant, and strong association between the real effective exchange rate of Azerbaijan and international oil prices. The other findings demonstrate that mainly agriculture-related variables decreased their role in the Azerbaijan economy since 1991 but only value-added per worker gradually rose, also correlating negatively with value-added in agriculture and investments in agriculture.