ArmInfo.In 2023, Armenia will ensure economic growth of 7.2%; the main driver of growth will remain the service sector. Minister of Finance of Armenia Vahe Hovhannisyan stated on October at a parliamentary committee hearing on the 2024 budget. In this regard, he recalled that the draft budget for 2024 includes a growth rate of 7%.
At the same time, he drew attention to the fact that in order to achieve high rates of economic growth, it is necessary to accelerate the implementation of reforms. The minister noted that the current pace is not enough. "We need high growth rates of investment and exports. In this regard, we must offer economic entities new tools and support programs," the head of the department said, noting that the processing industry, which has suffered this year due to the revaluation of the dram and the uncompetitiveness of Armenian goods in foreign markets, needs help most of all. Hovhannisyan noted that in the near future their assistance will be directed to the processing industry.
According to the Minister, the expectations for export of goods and transfers decreased a little in the draft budget, but for tourist flows, on the contrary, they increased. "We expect that 2,570 million tourists will visit Armenia by the end of 2024," Hovhannisyan said.
He also noted that this year the deflator will grow by 3.5 percent, and it will be corrected to the target level in 2024 alone.
At the same time, the Minister of Finance noted that positive trends in the labor market will continue in 2024. In particular, Hovhannisyan noted that next year the number of registered employees will increase by 2.7%, and wages by 8.8%, the employment rate will increase by 1.4%, and unemployment will decrease to 12.3%.
According to preliminary data from the Statistics Committee, the growth of economic activity in Jan-Sept 2023 in Armenia slowed down 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 Jan-Sept 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%.
Against this background, Armenia's foreign trade turnover in Jan-Sept 2023 amounted to 5.3 trillion drams ($13.7 billion) with a slowdown in y-o-y growth to 47.2% (from last year's 62.5%). This is due to the slowdown in y-o-y growth of both exports - from 63.8% to 48.5%, and imports - from 61.6% to 46.4%, the absolute value of which amounted to 2 trillion and 3.3 trillion drams ($5.2 billion and $8.5) respectively billion).
