ArmInfo. In the first half of 2018, Armenia's trade sector slowed down its annual growth rate from 12.6% to 9.1%, providing a volume of 1.3 trillion. ($ 2.6 billion), of which 234.6 billion drams ($ 486 million) - only in June, with a monthly growth of 3.8%. According to the National Statistical Service of Armenia, this dynamics was provoked by the stagnation of retail trade in parallel with the slowdown in wholesale growth.
In particular, wholesale trade in the first half of the year demonstrated a slowdown in annual growth from 20.3% to 17.8%, amounting to 594 billion drams ($ 1.2 billion). In June alone, wholesale trade increased by 9.9% to 114.3 billion drams ($ 236.8 million).
Retail trade during the reporting period also slowed the growth rate from 6.2% to 0.5%, amounting to 607.1 billion drams ($ 1.3 billion). Only in June, retail sales decreased by 1% to 108.7 billion drams ($ 225.1 million). In the structure of retail trade, the largest turnover is provided by stores (including supermarkets) - 476.2 billion drams or 78.4% (with an annual decline of 21.6%), other retail facilities - 78.2 billion drams or 12.9% (from the year-on-year decline by 1.7%), after which the consumer goods markets followed by a margin of 31.5 billion or 5.2% (with an annual decline of 0.9%), stalls and kiosks - 13.5 billion or 2.2% with an annual decline of 5.5%) and agricultural markets - 7.8 billion or 1.3% (with an annual decline of 12.5%).
The volume of purchase / sale of cars in the first half of 2018, on the contrary, accelerated the growth rate to 26.4% from 21.6% in the same period a year earlier, to 56.6 billion drams ($ 117.4 million). Only in June car trade reduced volumes by 5.7% to 11.6 billion drams ($ 24 million).
In the structure of Armenia's total trade turnover, the lion's share (48.3%) falls on retail trade, 47.2% - on wholesale, and 4.5% - on car buying/selling.