ArmInfo. As a result of January 2017, the volume of mutual trade of the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union grew by 38.1%. This was announced at the onlain conference by the member of the board (minister) for integration and macroeconomics of the Eurasian Economic Commission Tatiana Valovaya.
According to her, in comparison with January of last year, Armenia registered an increase in mutual trade by 81.3%. She noted that by the end of 2016 Armenia had achieved the growth of mutual trade by 53%, and Kyrgyzstan by 4.4%. Meanwhile, Armenia's foreign trade with third countries increased by 3.3%, Kyrgyzstan - by 11.9%. "This shows that Armenia and Kyrgyzstan, which joined the union in 2015, began to benefit from Eurasian integration," she said.
Valovaya noted that according to preliminary estimates, last year the whole of the EEU was observed a decline in GDP in constant assessments by 0.1%, but the reduction is not as significant as in 2015, while GDP fell by 2.3%. "The Eurasian Economic Commission for 2017 predicts GDP growth of the union by 0.9%, while for 2018-2019 the same positive dynamics is expected," she stressed.
The Minister noted that in 2016 GDP in two states of the EEU, the GDP fell: in Belarus and Russia. "To a large extent, the volume of GDP was reduced in Russia, since it is an exporter of oil and gas. We should not forget that the Belarusian economy is connected with the production of oil products, of course, this affected the reduction in the volume of GDP", she said, adding that she did not hear about the dissatisfaction of the Belarusian side that the GDP decline is connected with the accession to the EEU join of Armenia or Kyrgyzstan.
"There is an increase in mutual trade between Belarus and both countries. Belarusian colleagues are finding new markets in these states. More than 52% of its products are sold by Belarus in the market of the EEU, this is the highest figure in the EEU. After Belarus, are Armenia and Kyrgyzstan, they sell 30-40% of their products in the territory of the EEU," she said.
