ArmInfo. In Armenia, economic activity in January- February 2018 compared to the same period in 2017 increased by 8.6%, against last year's 6.2% growth. According to the data of the National Statistical Service of Armenia, annual growth has provoked all areas, except for the agricultural sector, but to a greater extent construction, trade and services. Only in February, economic activity rose by 7.2%, and compared with February 2017 - by 7.3%.
According to statistical data, for January-February 2018, the scope of construction increased by 22.7% per annum, trade - by 17.4%, services - by 15.1%, against which the industrial sector showed a modest growth of 8.3%, energy complex - by 3.5%, while the agricultural sector slowed down to 0.1%. In the annual context (February 2018 to February 2017), the construction sphere also distinguished the largest growth, the trade sector and services - 25.1%, 17.6% and 15.4%, respectively, followed by the industrial sector - 3.3% and the agricultural sector - 0.2%, and the energy complex was in decline - by 0.5%.
The industrial production price index increased by 4.4% in January-February 2018, with an annual growth of 3.6%. In absolute terms, the leadership is held by the trade sector with volume of 359.1 billion drams ($ 745.1 million) in January-February 2018. The second place in terms of volume is the industrial sector - 254.7 billion ($ 528.6 million), the third - the service sector - 225.7 billion drams ($ 468.3 million), the fourth - agricultural sector - 45.3 billion drams ($ 94.1 million), and in the fifth - construction sector - 21.6 billion drams ($ 44.9 million). The volume of electricity generation in January-February 2018 amounted to 1502.2 million kWh. At the same time, Armenia's foreign trade turnover in January-February 2018 amounted to 512.4 billion drams ($ 1098.4 million) with an annual growth of 43.2%. In its structure, the volume of exports has undergone an annual growth of 41% to 186.4 billion drams ($ 386.9 million), and imports - an annual growth of 44.4% to 326 billion drams ($ 711.5 million). Only in February 2018, foreign trade turnover increased by 17.2% due to the growth of imports by 16.3% and exports by 19%, and in comparison with February 2017, the growth of exports by 37.7% and imports by 40.4% of foreign trade turnover by 39.4%. A year earlier, in January-February 2017, the foreign trade turnover underwent an annual growth of 22.2% due to the growth of exports by 20.1% and imports by 23.5%, but only in February 2017, the growth of exports and imports by 25.3% and 21.6% respectively led to an increase in foreign trade turnover by 22.9%.
The average calculated exchange rate for the dram was 481.88 AMD / $ 1 in January- February and 481.38 AMD / $ 1 in February 2018, compared to 486.26 AMD / $ 1 in January-February 2017 and 486.51 AMD / $ 1 - in February 2017g. It should be noted that the World Bank predicts GDP growth of Armenia in 2018 by 3.8% with acceleration in 2019 to 4%. The state budget of the Republic of Armenia for 2018 laid the GDP growth by 4.5%.
