Economic activity growth in Armenia decreased to 10.4% in Jan-Aug

ArmInfo. In Armenia, the growth of economic activity in January-August 2023 slowed to 10.4% per annum  (from 13.9% a year earlier), accompanied by a noticeable slowdown in the upward dynamics of exports and imports, according to the final data of the RA Statistical Committee.

According to statistics, the growth in economic activity in  January-August 2023 was determined by the trade sector - by 23.1% per  annum, the construction sector - by 17.3% and the service sector - by  14.8%. The growth in economic activity in the energy complex and the  industrial sector decreased by 2.6% and 0.1%, respectively. A year  earlier, in January-August 2022, all these areas showed growth:  the  service sector - by 27.1%, the energy sector - by 16.6%, the  construction sector- by 14.2%, the trade sector - by 13.6%, the  industrial sector - by 9.2%. There are no data on the agricultural  sector in the reports of the Statistical Committee starting from  2019, as they are published only quarterly.

According to statistical data of January-August 2023, the leader in  absolute value is the trade sector - 3.2 trillion drams ($8.3  billion). The second place in terms of volume is occupied by the  service sector - 1.9 trillion drams ($5 billion), the industrial  sector ranks 3rd  - 1.6 trillion ($4.1 billion), and due to the lack  of data on the agricultural sector the construction sector ranksth  -  283.6 billion drams ($729.1 million). The volume of electricity  generation in January-August 2023 amounted to 5712.9 million kWh, of  which - 774.2 million kWh in August alone.

At the same time, in August of this year by August 2022, economic  activity also slowed down in growth to 10.9% (from 18.5% a year  earlier), which is also observed on a monthly term with a slowdown in  growth to 6.2% in August from 7.6% in July, against a more pronounced  growth slowed a year earlier to 1.5% in August from 8.5% in July.

On  y-o-y terms (August 2023 to August 2022), all sectors showed an  upward trend, with the exception of the industrial sector, which was  in a 3.7% decline (versus high double-digit growth a year ago). In  particular, the trade sector showed the highest y-o-y growth - by  23.5%, followed by the growth rate of the construction sector -  17.5%, the service sector - 13.8% and the energy complex - 3.2%. A  year earlier, in August 2022, by August 2021, all areas showed  growth, moreover, the energy sector and industry have shown  significant growth after the recession: energy sector - 30.1%,  services sector - 25.1%, industry - 23.3%, trade sector - 20% and  construction sector: 16.3%.

Against this background, Armenia's foreign trade turnover in  January-August 2023 amounted to 4.7 trillion drams ($12 billion) with  a slowdown in y-o-y growth to 53% (from 56.2% a year earlier). This  is due to some slowdown in y-o-y growth of both exports - from 52.9%  to 51.8%, and imports - from 58.2% to 53.8%, the absolute value of  which exceeded respectively 1.7 trillion and 2.9 trillion drams ($4.5  billion and $7.5 billion).

In August 2023, compared to August 2022, foreign trade turnover  increased by 10% due to an increase in imports by 12.4% and exports  by 6.1%, while in the y-o-y dynamics of last year (August 2022  compared to August 2021) a 2.1-fold increase in foreign trade  turnover was recorded, with the same growth of both exports and  imports.

The average settlement exchange rate of the dram was 386.17 AMD/$1 in  August 2023, and 388.93 AMD/$1 in January-August 2023.