ArmInfo. In the first half of 2017, Armenia's trade sector changed its annual dynamics from a 0.3% decline to a 12.6% growth, providing a volume of 1.1 trillion ($ 2.3 billion), of which 227.2 billion drams ($ 472 million) - only in June, with a monthly growth of 10.4%. According to the National Statistical Service of Armenia, the way out of the recession is due to the positive trend of wholesale trade and trade in cars, as well as a change in the dynamics of retail trade from the descending to the ascending trend.
Wholesale trade in the first half of the year demonstrated an acceleration of annual growth from 5% to 20.3%, amounting to 496 billion AMD (over $ 1 billion). In June alone, wholesale trade increased by 19.8% to 108.4 billion ($ 225.1 million).
Retail trade changed the annual trend in the first half of 2017 from a 4.3% decline to a 6.2% growth, amounting to 581 billion ($ 1.2 billion). Only in June, retail sales increased by 3% to 110.3 billion ($ 229 million). The largest turnover in the structure of retail trade is provided by stores (including supermarkets) - 457 billion AMD or 78.7% (with annual growth of 8.4%), other retail facilities - 70.5 billion or 12.1% (from Year-on-year growth of 9.2%), followed by consumer goods markets - 30.8 billion or 5.3% (with an annual decline of 21.3%), stalls and kiosks - 13.9 billion or 2.4% (with annual growth of 2.3%) and agricultural markets - 8.6 billion or 1.5% (with an annual decline of 3.1%).
The volume of purchase/sale of cars in the first half of 2017 accelerated the growth rate to 21.6% from 9% in the same period a year earlier, amounting to 44.7 billion ($ 92.3 million). Only in June car trade reduced volumes by 4.3% to 8.5 billion ($ 17.7 million).
In the structure of Armenia's total trade turnover, the lion's share (51.8%) falls on retail trade, 44.2% - on wholesale, and 4% - on car buy/sale.
The average calculated exchange rate of the AMD to the USD was 481.52 AMD/USD1 in June 2017, and 484.57 AMD/USD1 in January-June, against 477.53 AMD/USD1 in June 2016 and 483.86 AMD/USD1 in January-June 2016.
