ArmInfo.In Armenia, economic activity in January-August 2021 increased by 4.9% per annum (against a 6.4% decline a year earlier), accompanied by an accelerated growth in exports and imports. In August of this year by August 2020, economic activity increased by 2.3% (against a decline of 9.8% a year earlier), while in August 2021 alone it slowed down to 2.1% from 7.5% in July, which was also observed in August 2020 - up to 7.4% from 9.7% in July.
According to the preliminary data of the RA Statistical Committee, the growth of economic activity in January- August 2021 was largely determined by the construction sector - by 7.3%, the trade sector - by 7.1%, the service sector - by 5.3%, to a lesser extent the industrial sector - by 1%, and the energy complex was in a decline of 1.5%. Since 2019, data on the agricultural sector in the reports of the Statistical Committee are published only on a quarterly basis. A year earlier, in January-August 2020, only the industrial sector and the energy complex remained in growth - 1.9% and 0.9%, respectively, and the rest of the fields were in decline: the construction sector - by 19.1%, the trade sector - by 11.5 %, the service sector - by 10.8%.
The industrial product price index increased in January-August 2021 compared to the same period in 2019 by 9.8%, in August 2021 compared to August 2020 it increased by 7.9%, and in August 202 alone it slowed down the decline to 0.4% from July 3.3%. A year earlier, in January-August 2020 against the same period of 2019, the industrial product price index increased by 1.5%, in August 2020 compared to August 2019 - increased by 4.4%, while in August 2020 alone, accelerating growth to 2% from July 1%. On a monthly basis (for August 2021), the construction sector gave a decisive impetus to the growth of economic activity, accelerating the pace to 27.8% from 12.1% in July. And the rest of the sectors, with the exception of the energy complex, showed scanty growth: the service sector - by 1% (against 3.3% in July, and 4.3% growth in August 2020), the industrial sector - by 0.6% (against the July stagnation, and growth by 8.4% in August 2020), the trade sector - by 0.2% (against 6.5% in July, and growth by 0.4% in August 2020). And the volume of generated electricity in August decreased by 8.8%, while in the previous month (July) and in August 2020 it was in growth - by 23.5% and 1.6%, respectively. In y-o-y terms (August 2021 to August 2020), an improvement in dynamics with an entry into growth was demonstrated by the service sector - by 10.8%, the trade sector - by 5% and the construction sector - by 2.3%, while the energy complex and the industrial sector were in decline from acceleration of rates to 12.2% and 5.2%, respectively. A year earlier, in August 2020 by August 2019, these areas were in decline, with the services sector leading in terms of rates - 19.3% and the trade sector - 14.8%, in comparison with which the rest of the sectors were distinguished by less significant subsidence: energy complex - 6, 9%, construction sector - 5.3% and industrial sector - 1.2%.
According to statistics in January-August 2021, the absolute leadership is held by the retail sector with a volume of 2.1 trillion drams ($ 4.03 billion). The industrial sector ranks second in terms of volume - 1.4 trillion ($ 2.8 billion), the third - service sector - 1.2 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 - 205.3 billion drams ($ 399.2 million). The volume of electricity generation amounted to 5030.5 million kWh in January-August 2021, of which in August alone- 576.4 million kWh.
At the same time, Armenia's foreign trade turnover in January-August 2021 amounted to 2.7 trillion drams ($ 5 billion) with an annual growth of 12.7%. In its structure, export volumes increased more impressively - by 21.8% per annum to 981.5 billion drams ($ 1.9 billion), than import volumes - by 7.7% to 1.6 trillion drams ($ 3.1 billion). In August 2021 alone, foreign trade turnover decreased by 4.7% due to a decline in imports by 8.2% with a negligible increase in exports by 1.4%, which was also observed in annual dynamics (August 2021 compared to August 2020), when the decline foreign trade turnover by 0.1% was due to the subsidence of imports by 7.3%, while exports grew by 13.9%. A year earlier, in January-August 2020, the decline in Armenia's foreign trade turnover by 10.2% was provoked by a decrease in imports by 12.4% with a decline in exports by 6%, in August 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, the 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.
The average calculated AMD exchange rate in August 2021 was 491.73 AMD / $ 1, and in January-August 2021 - 514.38 AMD / $ 1, against 485.49 AMD / $ 1 - in August 2020 and 483.90 AMD / $ 1 - in January-August 2020.
