ArmInfo. In January-August 2018, the trade sector of Armenia slowed down the y-o-y growth from 12.3% to 9.7%, totaling 1.7 trillion drams ($ 3.6 billion). According to the Statistics Committee of Armenia, this is caused by a slowdown in the rate of y-o-y growth in retail and wholesale trade, against the backdrop of accelerating growth in trade in cars. At the same time, in August 2018, the trade turnover in Armenia showed an increase of 4.4% to 262.3 billion drams ($ 543.7 million).
Wholesale during the reported period increased by 17.8% to 840.2 billion drams ($ 1.7 billion), against a growth of 20.8% in 2017. In August 2018 alone, the turnover of wholesale trade in Armenia increased by 2.9% to 125.4 billion drams.
Revenues from retail sales increased to 847.5 billion drams ($ 1.7 billion) with an increase of 1% per annum, against 5.8% growth in January-August 2017. In August alone, retail sales revenue increased by 6.5% to 124.4 billion drams.
In the structure of retail trade, the greatest turnover is ensured by stores (including supermarkets) - 668.1 billion drams or 78.8% (with y-o-y growth by 2.1%), other trade facilities - 109.2 billion drams or 12.9% (with a y-o-y decline of 1.8%), followed by consumer goods markets - 42.2 billion or 5% (with a y-o-y decline of 0.8%), stalls and newsstands - 17.7 billion or 2.1% (with a y-o-y decline of 4.2%) and agricultural markets - 10.2 billion or 1.2% (with a y-o-y decline of 18.1%).
The volume of purchase / sale of cars in January-August 2018 increased by 30.9% to 81.8 billion drams ($ 169.7 million), against the growth of 13.3% a year earlier. In monthly terms, revenue from the sale / purchase of cars decreased by 1% to 12.5 billion drams.
In the structure of Armenia's total trade turnover, the major share (47.9%) is held by retail trade, 47.5% - wholesale, and 4.6% -car buying / selling
The average exchange rate of the dram against the US dollar in August 2018 was 482.43 dr./$ 1, and in January-August - 482.01 dr./$ 1, against 478.61 dr./$ 1 in August 2017 and 483.13 dr ./$ 1 in January- August 2017