ArmInfo.This January-July saw a ecline in economic activity to 10.4% (against 13.1% last Jan-July) in Armenia, which affected exports and imports. This July, 6% economic activity was recorded (against 19.4% last July), with 7.6% growth recorded this July against 9.9% this June, and 8.5% last July against 17% last June.
According to the RA Statistical Committee, the increase in economic activity this January-July was mainly due to the trade sector (23%), construction (17.2%) and services sector (27.5%), industry (9.5%), with the energy sector recording a 3.5% decline. Since 2019, the data on Armenia's agricultural sector has been published on a quarterly basis.
Last January-July, the same sectors showed growth: services sector (27.5%), energy (14.9%), construction (13.6%), trade (12.5%), industry (7%).
This January-July, the index of prices for industrial products showed a 6.9% year-on-year rise, with a 0.1% rise this July as compared with 3% this June. Last January-July saw a 6.3% year-on-year rise in the index of prices for industrial products as compared with the corresponding period 2021, with a 2.2% decline last July against July 2021. Last July alone saw a 4.4% decline against a 2.9% decline last June.
This July, the energy sector recorded a 4.5% growth against an 8.3% growth this June, with a 13.8% growth last July against a 6.4% growth last June. The industrial sector showed a 1.3% growth against 2.8% this June (a 3.2% decline last July against 17.1% growth last June). The services sector recorded a 1% growth this July and 0.7% growth this June (0.3% decline last July against an 8% growth last June).
This July against this June, the construction sector was the leader despite the 12% against 20.1% respectively (12.5% last July against 21.9% last June), followed by the trade sector (9.4% against 5.5% and 9.3% growth last July against 12.8% last June).
In annual terms (July 2023 to July 2022), the growth of economic activity was observed not in all industries, in particular, the energy complex and the industrial sector slid into recession by 8.5% and 2.4%, respectively (against growth by 15.6% and 13.7 % a year earlier). The largest growth was provided by the trade sector and the construction sector - by 20.4% and 17.8%, respectively, showing almost the same rates a year earlier - 21.3% and 16.8%. As for the service sector, here the annual growth rate has slowed down significantly - from last year's leading 30.6% to the current 5.8%.
According to statistical data in January-July 2023, in absolute terms, the leadership is held by the trading sector with a volume of 2.8 trillion. drams ($7.1 billion). The services sector returned to the second position - 1.7 trillion drams ($4.3 billion), displacing the industrial sector to the third place - 1.4 trillion drams ($3.6 billion). And, due to the lack of data on the agricultural sector, the fourth position is occupied by the construction sector - 222.5 billion drams ($571.4 million). The volume of electricity generation amounted to in January-July 2023 4938.8 million kWh, of which only in July - 668.6 million kWh.
Against this background, Armenia's foreign trade turnover in January-July 2023 exceeded 4 trillion. drams ($10.4 billion), with an acceleration of annual growth from 47.7% to 62.6%. This was due to the acceleration of growth in both exports and imports. In particular, the volume of exports jumped in annual terms by 62.1% to 1.5 trillion drams ($3.8 billion), and imports - by 63% to 2.5 trillion. drams ($6.5 billion), which was observed at a somewhat modest pace a year earlier - 43.9% for exports and 50.1% for imports. In July 2023 alone, the foreign trade turnover lingered in the decline with a slowdown from 7.4% in June to the reported 2.4% due to imports delayed in the decline with an acceleration in rates from 5.2% to 6.6% when export dynamics 11% decline to 5.3% growth, while a year earlier the reversal of foreign trade dynamics from 20.2% growth in June to 0.5% decline in July was due to a deterioration in the export trend from 38. 2% growth to 4.9% decline and a slowdown in import growth from 10.4% to 2.5%. And in July 2023, compared to July 2022, a strong slowdown in the growth of foreign trade turnover from 67.7% to 18.1% was provoked by the same slowdown in the growth of exports from 82.2% to 15.6% and imports from 58.8% to 19 .7%.
It should be noted that the average settlement rate of the dram in July 2023 was 386.54 AMD / $1, and in January-July 2023 - 389.33 AMD / $1, against 410.03 AMD / $1 - in July 2022 and 460.06 AMD / $1 - in January-July 2022