ArmInfo. Ra Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, together with the participants of the session of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council, was hosted today at the residence of the President of Armenia Vahagn Khachaturyan.
As the press service of the PM reports, the President wished a successful course to the work of the session of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council and expressed his belief that discussions in this format will contribute to the development of Eurasian integration processes and the strengthening of economic security mechanisms.
Prime Minister Pashinyan thanked President Khachaturian for his warm words and provided details about the course of the session. In his speech, the Armenian Prime Minister specifically stated: "Dear Mr. President, we can already say that traditionally we hold the autumn session of the Intergovernmental Council of the Eurasian Economic Union in Yerevan. We had the narrow-format session yesterday, and I must say, I think our colleagues will agree that it was a very productive session. We adopted a number of important decisions that will contribute to the further development of the EAEU.
In general, the autumn session is the concluding session of the Intergovernmental Council. Today, it can already be noted that the EAEU economic mechanisms justify themselves, because in these difficult times for the Republic of Armenia, the trade turnover between the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union and the Republic of Armenia has more than doubled. This is a really impressive fact. It turns out that the formula that we say that difficult times, crisis situations bring not only challenges, but also new opportunities comes to life, and we must continue to work closely to take advantage of these opportunities. I am glad that we are moving forward in this direction.
Today, the Prime Minister of Uzbekistan, Abdulla Nigmatovich Aripov, joined us. He will participate in the extended session. Uzbekistan is an observer country in the Eurasian Economic Union, which is very gratifying. I hope and am sure that we will have a good, effective and fruitful session today as well."
It should be noted that the volume of mutual trade between the EAEU countries in 2021 reached a historical maximum. Last year, this figure exceeded $73 billion, or almost a third more than in 2020. The total tonnage of commercial traffic increased by 11%. The growth in trade in agricultural products amounted to about 21%, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said at a meeting of the Intergovernmental Council of the EAEU in an expanded format. The Russian ruble continues to be the main settlement currency in the Eurasian area, having a 72% share of business payments. According to the results of H1 2022, the Union's GDP exceeded $1 trillion. Investments in fixed assets grew by more than 6.5%, and capital construction volumes - by 3.5%.
The trade turnover between Armenia and the EAEU countries in January-August 2022 reached $2.8 billion, with an increase of 74% compared to the same period in 2021. In particular, as Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan stated, exports from Armenia have doubled, and imports have increased by 58%.
