ArmInfo. Armenia's GDP growth in H1 2023 slowed down to 16.1% per annum (from 18.3% in the same period in 2022), exceeding 3.9 trillion drams or $10.1 billion, according to the data of the RA Statistical Committee.
And the quarterly dynamics of GDP was negative only in Q1 - by 36.3%, by a positive dynamics of 16.5% in Q2, which repeated the quarterly dynamics of 2022, when a 36% decline in Q1 was followed by a 19.6% growth in Q2
The GDP deflator index for H1 2023 showed a more noticeable slowdown in quarterly growth - from 107.3% in the Q1 to 103.1% in Q2, while in the comparable period of 2022 there was a slight slowdown in growth from 106.8% in Q1 to 106.6% in Q2.
GDP per capita quarterly during H1 2023 increased: from 600.249 thousand drams ($1529) in Q1 to 716.830 thousand drams ($1852) in Q2, which was also observed in 2022 - from 501.303 thousand drams ($1031) in Q1 to 641.105 thousand drams ($1424) in 2. And this growth in per capita GDP is recorded against the background of an increase in the population of Armenia by 23.2 thousand people over the year- up to 2.985 million people by July 1, 2023, while in the same period of 2022, per capita GDP showed growth with a decrease in the population by 2.7 thousand people.
Double-digit y-o-y GDP growth in H1 2022 was mainly driven by: the trade sector- by 23.6%, the construction sector - by 17% and the service sector - by 16.8%, and to a lesser extent from the agricultural sector - by 2% and the industrial sector - by 1%, with the energy complex in decline - by 2.7%. A year earlier, in H1 2022, these industries, with the exception of the agricultural sector, which was in a 5.5% decline, were also in growth: the service sector - 26.9%, the energy complex - 14.8%, the construction sector - 12.7% , trade sector - 10.7%, industrial sector - 5.8%.
At the same time, Armenia's foreign trade turnover demonstrated a sharp acceleration in y-o-y growth - from 44% in H1 2022 to 72.9% in H1 2023. This was mainly due to almost identical growth of exports and imports - 72.8% and 73% respectively (from 36.3% and 48.7% a year earlier).
It should be noted that in early June, the World Bank improved the forecast for Armenia's GDP growth for 2023 from the previous 4.1% to the updated 4.4%. Then, in mid-June, the improved GDP growth for 2023 was announced by the Central Bank of the Republic of Armenia - from 5.8% to an updated 6.9%. And the International Monetary Fund much earlier, in mid-April, improved its forecast for Armenia's GDP growth for 2023 from the previous 4.5% to the updated 5.5%, confirming its expectations two months later - in mid-June. According to actual statistics, Armenia's GDP accelerated to double-digit growth of 12.6% in 2022 (from 5.8% in 2021), well exceeding the pre-Covid 7.6% growth in 2019. In absolute terms, Armenia's GDP exceeded 8.5 trillion drams ($19.5 billion) in 2022.
