ArmInfo.In the trade sector of Armenia, the turnover for 2018 increased by 8.7% per annum (against 14% growth in 2017), amounting to 2.9 trillion drams (over $ 6 billion). In December 2018 alone, trade turnover in Armenia increased by 34.1% to 359.2 billion drams ($ 741.1 million).
The narrowing of the dynamics of the trade sector is due to the slowdown in retail and wholesale trade. In particular, wholesale trade in 2018 showed an increase of 16.4% per annum - up to 1.39 trillion drams ($ 2.8 billion), against 25.8% growth a year earlier. The volume of purchase / sale of cars in 2018, on the contrary, accelerated the pace of annual growth from 15% to 16.7%, reaching 131.6 billion drams ($ 272.6 million). Only in December 2018, the wholesale trade turnover increased by 19.7% - to 155.7 billion drams, and the volume of car trade - by 9.4% - to 14.2 billion drams.
According to the Statistics Committee of the Republic of Armenia, the retail trade turnover for 2018 amounted to 1.41 trillion.drams ($ 2.9 billion), an increase of 1.3% y-o-y, against 5.5% growth a year earlier. In December alone, retail trade turnover grew by 51.7% to 189.2 billion drams. In the structure of retail trade, the largest turnover is provided by stores (including supermarkets) - 79.8% or 1.1 billion drams (with an y-o-y growth of 2.6%), other shopping facilities - 12.3% or 173.6 billion drams (from constant annual dynamics), followed by consumer goods markets - 4.8% or 68.1 billion (with an y-o-y decline of 4.4%), stalls and kiosks - 2% or 27.1 billion (with an y-o-y decline of 5, 3%) and agricultural markets - 1.1% or 15.6 billion (with an y-o-y decline of 25.7%). Retail trade dominates in the structure of the total trade turnover of Armenia - 48.1%, followed by wholesale - 47.4%, and purchase / sale of cars - 4.5%. The average settlement rate of the dram to the US dollar in December 2018 was 484.67 dr./$ 1, and in January-December 2018 - 482.99 dr./$ 1, against 483.18 dr./$ 1 in December 2017 and 482, 72 dr./$ 1 in January-December 2017