Preparation of Armenian agrarian sector for "winter sleep" sharply slackened economic activity growth in Armenia from 23% to 9.8% in Sept 2015

ArmInfo. The preparation of the Armenian agrarian sector for "winter sleep" has sharply slackened the economic activity growth in Armenia from 23% to 9.8% in September 2015. According to the National Statistical Service of Armenia, the gross agricultural output in September grew by 48.5% (versus 2-fold growth in August). This affected Armenia's economic activity most of all, despite the acceleration of the monthly growth of construction (from 11.9% to 18.8%) and industry (from 0.6% to 5.2%).

In Jan-Sept 2015, the economic activity of Armenia rose by 3.7% versus 4.3% growth a year before. In Sept 2015 versus Sept 2014, the economic activity grew by 2.2% versus 5.1% growth in September 2014 as compared to Sept 2013.

In September 2015, trade and services demonstrated positive dynamics - 1.4% and 7%, respectively (versus the negative dynamics in August - 3% and 3.2%, respectively; 3.5% and 2.5% growth in September 2014).  As regards the year-over-year dynamics, trade dropped by 10.9% and services grew by 4.1%. In Jan-Sept 2015, trade dropped by 5.6%, services grew by 2.5% versus 5.2% and 6.8% a year before. The electricity output declined by 4.9% in Sept 2015 versus 13.8% growth in August. In Jan-Sept 2015 the electricity output experienced 3.8% y-o-y growth versus 2.5% decline a year before.

In Jan-Sept 2015 versus Jan-Sept 2014, agriculture rose by 11.3%, industry - by 4.8%, services - by 2.5% and construction  - by 0.1%.  In Jan-Sept 2015, trade amounted to 1.6 trillion AMD ($3.4 bln) in absolute terms, industry - 948.3 bln AMD ($1.7 bln), services - 850.8 bln AMD ($1.6 bln), agriculture - 710.4 bln AMD ($1.1 bln), and construction - 258.9 bln AMD ($442.2 mln). The electricity output made up 5771.7 mln kW/h in Jan-Sept 2015 and 665.4 mln kW/h in September alone.

In Jan-Sept 2015, the foreign trade turnover of Armenia amounted to 1.7 trillion AMD ($3.5 bln), with a 20% y-o-y decline and 8.3% growth versus August. Exports dropped over year by 0.9% to 523.3 bln AMD ($1.1 bln), and import declined over year by 26.6% to 1.1 trillion AMD ($2.4 bln). In September alone, the foreign trade turnover amounted to 200.1 bln AMD ($415.8 mln), with export totaling 61.7 bln AMD ($128.2 mln) and import - 138.4 bln AMD ($287.6 mln).

In September 2015, the average AMD/USD exchange rate made up 481.07 AMD/$1, in Jan-Sept 2015 it was 477.71 AMD/$1 versus 408.80 AMD/$1 in Sept 2014 and 410.79 AMD/$1 in Jan-Sept 2014.