ArmInfo.In Armenia, the price index of industrial products decreased in January-September 2023 compared to the same period in 2022 to 101.3% from last year's 104.1%. This was observed against the background of a decline in industrial sector volumes by 0.6% - to AMD 1,800bln ($4.7 billion), while a year earlier an increase of 10% was recorded.
According to statistics, in September 2023 compared to September 2022, the price index of industrial products, on the contrary, increased to 105.2%, while a year earlier in September 2022 compared to September 2021 this figure was in decline and amounted to 96.7%. During this period under review, the volumes of the industrial sector also declined, and the decline was more noticeable - by 4.3%, while a year earlier a double-digit growth rate of 14.8% was recorded.
During these periods under review, inflation in the Armenian consumer market decreased noticeably. In particular, in January-September 2023, compared to the same period in 2022, inflation decreased to 2.8% from last year's 8.6%, and in September 2023 compared to September 2022 it decreased to a meager 0.1% from inflation of 9.9% in the year previously. Moreover, the very meager level of deflation in Armenia is explained by food prices that are difficult to reduce and services that continue to rise in price.
It is worth noting that this is accompanied by a slowdown in the growth of economic activity in Armenia in January-September 2023 from 14.1% to 9.7% per annum, and in September of this year. by September 2022 - from 14.6% to 5.6%. In parallel, there is a slowdown in the annual growth of foreign trade turnover in January-September 2023 to 47.2% from last year's 62.5%, as a result of a slowdown in the growth of exports and imports from 63.8-61.6% to 48.5-46.4%.
Moreover, in September 2023, compared to September 2022, the volume of foreign trade stalled in growth much more noticeably - from last year's jump by 2 times to the current 15.9% due to a similar slowdown in the upward dynamics of exports and imports from an impressive increase to the reported 31.5- 5.6%. (The average settlement exchange rate for the dram in January-September 2023 was 388.71 AMD/$1).
