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.
