9.7% growth in economic activity in Armenia in Jan-Sept, 2023

ArmInfo.In Armenia, the growth of economic activity in January- September 2023 slowed to 9.7% per  annum (from last year's 14.1%), accompanied by a noticeable slowdown in the upward dynamics of exports and imports. 

According to statistics, the growth in economic activity in  January-September 2023 was determined by the trade sector - by 23.3%  per annum, the construction sector - by 17% and the service sector -  by 13.4%, and to a much lesser extent the agricultural sector - by  1.7% . The energy complex and the industrial sector fell by 2.8% and  0.6%, respectively. A year earlier, in January-September 2022, only  the agricultural sector was in decline by 0.7%, and all other sectors  showed double-digit growth rates: the service sector - by 27.1%, the  energy sector - by 16.9%, the trade sector - by 14 .5%, the  construction sector - by 14.3%, the industrial sector - by 10%.

According to statistical data for January-September 2023, in absolute  value the leadership is held by the trade sector with a volume of 3.8  trillion. drams ($9.6 billion). The second place in terms of volume  is occupied by the service sector - 2.2 trillion drams ($5.7  billion), third - the industrial sector - 1.8 trillion ($4.7  billion), fourth - the agricultural sector - 619.7 billion ($1.6  billion), fifth - the construction sector - 349.3 billion drams  ($898.6 million). ). The volume of electricity generation in  January-September 2023 amounted to 6343.7 million kWh, of which in  September alone - 630.8 million kWh.

At the same time, in September of this year. by September 2022,  economic activity also slowed down in growth to 5.6% (from 14.6% a  year earlier), which is also observed on a monthly basis with growth  slowing to 3.7% in September from 6.2% in August, against last year's  acceleration growth in September from 1.6% to 8.9%.

On an annual basis (September 2023 to September 2022), all sectors  showed an upward trend, with the exception of the industrial sector  and the energy complex, which were in decline by 4.3% and 3.9%,  respectively. In particular, the trade sector showed the highest  annual growth - by 24.2%, followed by the growth rate of the  construction sector - 15.7% and the service sector - 4.6%. A year  earlier, in September 2022, all areas showed growth by September  2021, and the energy complex and industrial sector managed to emerge  from the recession and ensure a significant increase in volumes: the  service sector - 26.3%, the trade sector - 20.7%, the energy complex  - 19.3% , industrial sector - 14.8% and construction sector - 14.6%.

Against this background, Armenia's foreign trade turnover in  January-September 2023 amounted to 5.3 trillion. drams ($13.7  billion) with a slowdown in annual growth to 47.2% (from last year's  62.5%). This is due to the slowdown in annual growth of both exports  - from 63.8% to 48.5%, and imports - from 61.6% to 46.48%, the  absolute value of which amounted to 2 trillion and 3.3 trillion drams  ($5.2 billion and $8.5) respectively. 

In September 2023, compared to September 2022, foreign trade turnover  increased by 15.9% due to an increase in exports by 31.5% and imports  by 5.6%, while in last year's annual dynamics (September 2022  compared to September 2021) there was a jump foreign trade turnover  doubled due to a jump in exports by 2.5 times and a high growth in  imports by 82.2%.

The average settlement exchange rate of the dram was 386.94 dr/$1 in  September 2023, and 388.71 dr/$1 in January-September 2023.