ArmInfo.Results of 2015
demonstrated certain economic advantages of Armenia's membership in
EEU, Tatyana Valovaya, Member of the Board (Minister) in charge of
the Development of Integration and Macroeconomics of the Eurasian
Economic Commission, said today during Yerevan-Moscow online
conference on the "Prospects of EEU Economic Development and measures
for raising the sustainability of EEU countries' economies".
"Armenia is the only country in the Customs Union, which had positive
indicators on GDP growth at year- end 2015 and in the beginning of
this year. This demonstrates that the integration had economic
advantages for the new member", she emphasized noting that Armenia's
model is a good motivation for further deepening of integration
processes within the EEU during establishment of common market of
goods and services.
Stressing the important role of integration for overcoming the
economic crisis Valovaya stated that in Jan- Feb 2016 the volume of
mutual trade of EEU member countries declined almost 18%, while the
foreign trade turnover with third countries dropped almost by 40%.
Valovaya also presented the data on Armenia's trade turnover with the
EEU member countries, according to which in the first two months of
2016 Armenia increased export to Belarus by 45%, to Russa-2-fold and
to Kyrgyzstan -4-fold. "I suppose that a number of Armenian
enterprises has already realized all the advantages of common market
of goods and services and currently possibly informational support
should be provided to the economic entities so that they can use the
given opportunities within the EEU more actively", Valovaya stated.
Touching upon the issue of Russian economy Valovaya noted that this
year recession in Russian economy will be more moderate, only by 1.4%
compared to the previous year while starting from 2017-2018 hopeful
signs of change from negative to positive trend of economic
development will be noticed.
Armenia became a full member of the EEU on Jan 2, 2015. The agreement
on Armenia's accession to the EEU was signed in Minsk on 10 October
2014. The Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union takes into account
the principles of sovereign equality of the parties and their
territorial integrity, as well as the national interests of the EEU
member states. The treaty implies freedom of movement of commodities,
services, capital and workforce, implementation of coordinated or
single policy in economic sectors stipulated by the treaty and
international agreements within the EEU.
To recall, International Monetary Fund (IMF) has upgraded its
forecast for Armenia's economic growth in 2016 to 2.25-2.5% versus
earlier forecasted 2.2%. World Bank forecasts a 2.5% GDP growth for
Armenia in 2016. EBRD forecasts economic growth to 2% in 2016. The
Central Bank of Armenia revised its economic growth forecast for
Armenia in 2016 from the previous 3.2- 3.9% to 1.6-2.7%, in its
monetary policy program for Q4 2015. The state budget of Armenia
fixed 2.2% GDP growth in 2016. According to the National Statistical
Service of Armenia GDP growth in Armenia in 2015 totaled 3% versus
3.5% in 2014. According to the statistical data economic activity in
Q1 2016 grew by 5.6% y-o-y versus 2.5% growth in the same period of
2015.
