In Armenia, economic activity in January-February 2018 increased by 8.6% per annum

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%.