Friday, September 25 2020 15:37

ArmInfo.. In Armenia, economic activity in January-August 2020 deepened into recession even more - to 6.4%, against the backdrop of rapidly declining volumes of exports  and imports. In August of this year against August 2019, economic  activity decreased by 9.8%, and in August 2020 alone it slowed growth  to 7.4% from 9.7% in July. A year earlier, in January-August 2019,  against the same period of 2018, economic activity increased by 7%,  in August compared to August 2018 - by 7.6%, and in August 2019 alone  - by 7.2%.

According to the preliminary data of the Statistical Committee of the  Republic of Armenia, the industries that used to act as drivers of  economic activity growth are now in decline amid the coronavirus  crisis, and even the industrial sector is approaching stagnation.  Thus, in January-August 2020, the only fields that kept on growing  were the industrial sector and the energy complex - 0.9% and 1.9% per  annum, respectively.  And the rest of the industries showed a serious  decline: construction - by 19.1%, trade - 11.5%, services - by 10.8%.  Agricultural sector statistics, starting from 2019, are published  only quarterly. A year earlier, in January-August 2019, the growth of  economic activity was largely determined by the service sector - by  15.5% per annum, the industrial sector - by 9.5%, the trade sector -  by 9%, the construction sector - by 4.4%, and the energy complex was  in decline by 3.5%.

The industrial product price index increased in January-August 2020  compared to the same period in 2019 by 1.5%, in August 2020 compared  to August 2019 - by 4.4%, and in August 2020 alone- by 2%. A year  earlier, in January-August 2019, compared to the same period in 2018,  the industrial product price index increased by 0.2%, in August 2019  compared to August 2018 - by 1.9%, and in August 2019 alone - by  1.4%.

In monthly terms (in August), the decisive impetus to the growth of  economic activity was given by the construction sector, which  increased its volumes by 29.8% (against growth by 16.7% in August  2019 and 10.8% growth in July 2020), and to a lesser extent, the  industrial sector - 8.4% (versus 0.2% growth in August 2019 and 1.4%  growth in July 2020), the service sector - by 4.3% (versus 1.2%  growth in August 2019 and 0.9% growth in July 2020). The energy  complex in August 2020 weakened growth to 1.6% from 16.2% in July  (against 6.9% growth in August 2019). And the trade sector almost  stagnated, slowing growth to 0.4% from 11.7% in July (versus 3.4%  growth in August 2019).

In y-o-y terms (August 2020 to August 2019), all sectors showed a  decline: the service sector - 19.3%, the trade sector - 14.8%, the  energy complex - 6.9%, the construction sector - 5.3%, the industrial  sector - 1, 2%. A year earlier, in August 2019 by August 2018, these  areas were in growth, and industry was leading in terms of rates -  16.8% and the service sector - 15%, in comparison with which the rest  of the  fields distinguished by modest growth: the trade sector - 9%,  the energy complex - 6.8% and the construction sector - 3.9%.

According to statistics in January-August 2020, the absolute  leadership is held by the trade sector with a volume of 1.8 trillion  drams ($ 3.7 billion). The industrial sector moved up to the second  place in terms of volume - 1.2 trillion ($ 2.6 billion), shifting to  the third service sector - 1.1 trillion drams ($ 2.3 billion), and  the fourth position, due to the lack of data on the agricultural  sector, is occupied by the construction sector - 179.03 billion drams  ($ 370 million). The volume of electricity generation in  January-August 2020 amounted to 5104.8 million kWh, of which in  August alone - 656.4 million kWh.

At the same time, Armenia's foreign trade turnover in January-August  2020 amounted to 2.1 trillion drams ($ 4.4 billion) with a y-o-y  decline of 10.2%. In its structure, the volume of exports underwent a  y-o-y decline by 6% to 758.4 billion drams ($ 1.6 billion), and the  decline in imports turned out to be more significant - by 12.4% to  1.4 trillion drams ($ 2.8 billion). In August 2020 alone, foreign  trade turnover increased by 5.8%, due to an increase in imports by  7.3% and exports by 3.4%, and compared to August 2019, a decrease in  foreign trade turnover by 4% was provoked by an almost equal decline  in exports and imports - by 3.8% and 4.1%, respectively. A year  earlier, in January-August 2019, an increase in Armenia's foreign  trade turnover by 2% was triggered by a rise in exports by 4.6% and  imports by only 0.7%, in August alone, foreign trade turnover  decreased by 1.6% due to a decline in imports by 2.8% with a weak  growth of exports by 0.6%, and compared to August 2018, an increase  in foreign trade turnover by 2.5% was triggered by an increase in  exports by 13.5%, while imports fell by 2.8%.

The average calculated AMD exchange rate was 485.49 AMD / $ 1 in  August 2020, and 483.90 AMD / $ 1 in January-August 2020, against 476  AMD / $ 1 in August 2019 and 482.19 AMD / $ 1 in January- August 2019