ArmInfo. In Armenia, in the first half of 2024, the services sector experienced a slowdown in annual growth from 16.8% to 4.4%, reaching a total volume of 1.5 trillion AMD ($3.9 billion). According to data from the RA Statistics Committee, in June alone, the volume of services provided increased by 5.6%, totaling to 282.8 billion AMD ($728.9 million). The annual growth slowdown was primarily caused by a decline in the performance of the leading sectors in terms of service volume, the information and communications and the transport, which are traditionally in the TOP-5 in terms of services provided.
In particular, the information and communications sector saw a decrease in revenue by 8.3% compared to the 56.8% growth from the previous year. Additionally, the volume of services in the transport sector decreased by 16.8% annually, in contrast to the 34.5% growth from a year ago.
At the same time, the financial sector, which dominates in terms of the volume of services provided, improved its dynamics, by moving from a 3.5% decline to a 19% growth.
The annual growth rate has accelerated in the fields of healthcare - from 4.1% to 8.9%, real estate - from 0.4% to 11.5%, administrative and support activities - from 3.9% to 8.8% and professional, scientific and technical activities - from 10.4% to 14.4%. However, statistics show a slowdown in growth in the areas of catering - from 23.8% to 8.2%, culture and entertainment - from 6.2% to 4.6% and education - from 11.7% to 7.9%.
The financial sector leads in the volume of services provided, accounting for 30.8% or 480.7 billion AMD, of which 370.1 billion are provided by banks. Following closely the information and communication sector - 17.8% or 278.6 billion AMD. In third place is the transport sector - with 11% or 172 billion drams. The catering and tourism sector takes the forth spot - 10.2% or 158.7 billion AMD. Rounding out the top five is the culture, entertainment and recreation sector with 141.2 billion AMD (9% of the total). To note that the average exchange rate of the Armenian dram against the US dollar in January-June 2024 was 396.09 AMD / $ 1, and in June - 388.06 AMD / $ 1.
