ArmInfo. In Armenia, the growth of economic activity in January-November 2023 slowed to 9.4% per annum (from last year's 14.4%), accompanied by a very noticeable slowdown in the upward dynamics of exports and imports.
According to statistics, the growth in economic activity in January-November 2023 was largely due to the trade sector - by 24.3% per annum, and to a slightly lesser extent the construction sector - by 15.6% and the service sector - by 11.1%, against the background of which the growth of the industrial sector turned out to be scanty - 2.1%. The dynamics of the energy complex sharply deteriorated from 16.8% growth to 4.3% decline. Data from the agricultural sector are not available, as they are published only in quarterly and annual reports. A year earlier, in January-November 2022, all of these areas showed growth: the service sector - by 28.2%, the energy complex - by 16.8%, the trade sector - by 16.2%, the construction sector - by 13.9%, the industrial sector - by 8.4%.
According to statistical data for January-November 2023, in absolute value the leadership is held by the trade sector with a volume of 4.8 trillion. drams ($12.3 billion). The second place in terms of volume is occupied by the service sector - 2.7 trillion drams ($7 billion), the third is the industrial sector - 2.4 trillion ($6.2 billion), and the fourth position, due to the lack of data on the agricultural sector, is occupied by the construction sector - 492.9 billion drams ($1.3 billion). The volume of electricity generation in January- November 2023 amounted to 7655.2 million kWh, of which in November alone - 708.5 million kWh.
At the same time, in November of this year. by November 2022, economic activity also slowed down in growth to 11.2% (from 13.8% a year earlier), and in November alone the dynamics reached 0.6% growth from the October 1.4% decline (vs. deepening of the decline for November 2022 from 2% to 4%). It is noteworthy that the November increase in economic activity mainly came from the acceleration of double- digit growth in the industrial sector to 26.8% (from 10.9% in October).
On an annual basis (November 2023 to November 2022), all sectors showed an upward trend, with the exception of the energy complex, which experienced an 11.9% decline. In particular, the trade sector showed the highest annual growth - by 32.1%, followed by the industrial sector - 23.8%, the construction sector - 11.4%, and the service sector - 2.4%. Moreover, such high growth in the industrial sector, according to statistical data, is due to a 13.7-fold jump in jewelry production volumes. A year earlier, in November 2022 by November 2021, only the industrial sector was in decline (by 2.3%), while other sectors showed growth: the service sector - by 30.9%, the trade sector - by 22.1%, the energy sector - by 17 .3%, construction sector - by 11.3%.
Against this background, Armenia's foreign trade turnover in January-November 2023 exceeded 7 trillion. drams ($17.9 billion), slowing down in annual growth to 42.4% (from last year's 67.8%). This is due to the slowdown in annual growth of both exports - from 75.2% to 44.7%, and imports - from 63.6% to 41%, the absolute value of which amounted to 2.7 trillion and 4.3 trillion drams ($6.9 billion and $10.9 billion).
In November 2023, compared to November 2022, foreign trade turnover increased by 48.2% due to an increase in exports by 85.7% and imports by 25%, while in last year's annual dynamics (November 2022 compared to November 2021) there was a much higher an increase in foreign trade turnover by 74.5% provoked by a jump in exports by 95.8% and imports by 63.9%.
The average settlement exchange rate of the dram was 402.52 dr/$1 in November 2023, and 391.39 dr/$1 in January-November 2023.
