Monday, December 18 2023 16:26

ArmInfo. Trade turnover between Armenia and the EAEU countries increased by 41% this year. Armenian Minister of Economy Vahan Kerobyan stated  on December 18 during a briefing for journalists. "We think that trade turnover will also grow in the coming years. For all that, our government is making great efforts and investing a lot to diversify foreign trade," he said.

The minister noted that despite the low percentage of foreign trade growth with Russia, the Russian Federation continues to be Armenia's leading trade partner in terms of volume. Kerobyan also pointed out that a significant increase in trade was registered with Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

In this regard, the head of the department noted that in the context of the balance of risks, it is important that the share of any partner country account is no more than 20% of the total trade volume.

"For example, you have a restaurant and one customer. No matter how good he is, one day he may not come and you will be forced to close your business. Therefore, you need to make sure that many people come to your restaurant, preferably from different countries," Kerobyan gave an example, noting that relations with all countries should be partnerships, and the driven policy should be based solely on the interests of Armenia.  According to the Statistics Committee of the Republic of Armenia, the foreign trade turnover of Armenia with the EAEU countries in January-October 2023 amounted to $5.7 billion, with a slowdown in y-o- ygrowth from 88% to 41%, a strong slowdown in the growth of both exports from 2.5-fold to 66.1 %, and imports - from 55.9% to 20.1%, the volume of which amounted to $3 billion and $2.7 billion.

In particular, over the 10 months of 2023, foreign trade turnover between Armenia and Russia slowed down in y-o-y growth from 86.4% to 40.8%, namely for exports - from 2.5-fold to 63% and for imports - from 53.4 % to 22.1%. As a result, the foreign trade turnover between Armenia and Russia amounted to $5.4 billion in January-October 2023, including exports - $2.9 billion and imports - $2.5 billion. Russia's share in Armenia's foreign trade turnover remained almost unchanged over the year, just slightly decreasing from 35.2% to 35.1%, which was provoked by an increase in the share in exports from 42.1% to 49.6% with a decline in the share in imports from 31% to 26.5%.

Trade turnover with Belarus increased by 14.1%, amounting to $168.8 million. Exports showed an increase of 65.3% to $91.8 million, imports decreased by 16.7% to $77 million.  The volume of mutual trade with Kazakhstan increased 2.3-fold to $79.4 million, exports showed an increase of 4.3-fold to $60 million, with imports declining by 8.8% to $19.4 million.  Trade turnover with Kyrgyzstan increased 5.4-fold to $24.9 million, with exports growing 6.5-fold to $24.6 million, and imports decreasing by 58.6% to $327.1 thousand.