Tuesday, June 25 2019 15:19

ArmInfo.In Armenia, the economic activity in January-May 2019 increased by 7.3% per annum amid a decline in exports and imports. In May of this year by May 2018, economic activity increased as much - by 7.3%, and in May 2019 alone - by 8.4%.

As a comparison, we note that a year earlier, in January-May 2018, by the same period of 2017, economic activity increased by 8.6%, in May compared to May 2017 - by 5.4%, and only in May - by 10.4 %. According to preliminary data of the RA Statistical Committee, the growth of economic activity in January- May 2019 was largely determined by the services sector - by 16.5% per annum, trade - by 9.4%, and to a lesser extent - construction and industrial sector - by 6.1%, respectively and 5.6%. The power supply package in the reporting period showed a decline of 7.4%. For the agricultural sector, starting from 2019, only quarterly and YOY data are published. It is noteworthy that in comparison with the indicator of a year ago, a slowing of the uptrend was recorded in all sectors, with the exception of the industrial sector and the power supply package. A year earlier, in January-May 2018, the agricultural sector, industrial sector, trade, construction and services showed growth - 1.5%, 3.3%, 10.2%, 17.4% and 17.5% per annum, respectively, and power complex was zero. The price index of industrial sector increased by 0.5% in January-May 2019 compared to the same period of 2018, by 1.2% in May 2019 compared to May 2018, and decreased by 0.7% in May 2019 alone. A year earlier, higher figures were recorded: the price index of promotion products rose in January-May 2018 compared with the same period of 2017 by 3.5%, in May 2018 by May 2017 - by 2.1%, and in May 2018 alone decreased by 1.2%. In the monthly section (for May), the construction sector gave a decisive impetus to the growth of economic activity with a volume increase of 43% (against a growth of 42.4% in May 2018), followed by trade at a significantly modest pace - by 9.2% ( against growth of 12.1% in May 2018), industrial sector - by 5.9% (against growth of 13.3% in May 2018), and the service sector - by 5.1% (against growth of 6.5% in May 2018). The power supply package on their background was distinguished by a return to the decline by 5.1% from a 2.3% increase in May 2018. On the agricultural sector, the data of May 2019 was not published, but a year earlier, in May 2018, a rather impressive growth was recorded - by 41.9%. In YOY terms (May 2019 by May 2018), the growth rate, as in the previous year, was in the lead by the services sector - 14.8%, after which the industrial sector followed by a small gap - by 10.2% (with an output from last year's decline). Against this background, the growth of trade, construction and the power supply package looked too modest - 4.9%, 2% and 1% respectively. A year earlier, in May 2018, by May 2017, the growth rates of the growth drivers were much more modest: the services sector led by 17%, after which the construction sector and trade followed with the same growth of 8.8%, against the background of which the growth of the energy sector and the agricultural sector looked too modest 1.8% and 0.1%, respectively, while the industrial sector showed a 3.1% decline.

According to statistics in January-May 2019, in absolute terms, the leadership is held by the commercial sector with a volume of 1.2 billion drams ($ 2.4 billion). The service sector ranks second in terms of 737.4 billion drams ($ 1.519 billion), displacing 733.1 billion ($ 1.510 billion) to the third industrial sector, agriculture was traditionally located in the fourth, but due to lack of data, construction was 97.3 billion drams ($ 200.6 million). The volume of electricity generation in January-May 2019 was 2998.4 million kWh, of which only in May - 576.2 million kWh. At the same time, the foreign trade turnover of Armenia in January-May 2019 amounted to 1383.4 billion drams ($ 2,851.1 million) with YOY decline of 2.6%. In its structure, the volume of exports declined in YOY terms by 0.9% to 466.1 billion drams ($ 960.8 million), and imports - by 3.4% to 917.3 billion drams ($ 1890.3 million). In May 2019 alone, foreign trade turnover decreased by 2.2% due to the sinking of both imports - by 3.3% and exports - by 0.1%, and compared to May 2018, foreign trade turnover decreased by 3.9% exclusively due to the decline in imports - by 10.5%, while exports grew by 11.7%. A year earlier, in January-May 2018, foreign trade turnover increased by 32.4% per annum due to the growth in exports by 24.1%, while imports grew by 37%, and the May increase in foreign trade turnover by 6.2% was triggered by an upward trend in imports by 11. 8% with exports falling by 5%, compared with May 2017, the increase in foreign trade turnover by 27.9% came from imports - 32.8%, than exports - 17.6%. The average settlement rate of dram in May 2019 was 480.55 AMD / $ 1, and in January-May 2019 - 485.30 SMD / $ 1, against 484.09 AMD/ $ May 1, 2018 and 481.92 AMD / $ 1 in January-May 2018