ArmInfo.In Armenia, the industrial price index continues to rise amid double-digit growth in industrial production. From January toAugust 2024, the industrial price index reached 102.9%, compared to 100.9% the previous year.
This increase coincided with an improvement in the annual dynamics of the industrial sector during the same period, transitioning from a 0.1% decline to a 13.7% growth, with total production reaching 1.9 trillion ($4.8 billion). This is evidenced by preliminary data from the RA Statistical Committee. According to preliminary statistics, in August 2024, the industrial price index was 103.5% compared to August 2023. In contrast, in August 2023, compared to August 2022, the index was significantly higher - 107.6%. The industrial sector in August 2024, also showed a modest growth in volumes by 2.1% compared to the previous year, where there was a 3.7% decline.
During the periods under review, either deflation or low inflation was observed in the Armenian consumer market. In particular, from January to August 2024, there was a deflation of 0.1% compared to the same period in 2023. In August 2024, inflation was recorded at 1.3% compared to August 2023, which had an inflation rate of 3.1% and deflation of 0.2%. Moreover, annual deflation in the consumer market in January-August 2024 was influenced by a 2.3% decrease in food prices. In contrast, annual inflation in August 2024 was driven by a 1.3% increase in food prices, while utility rates continued to rise during these periods.
For comparison, we observed the following trends in food prices in 2023, an annual increase of 1.9% from January to August, followed by a of 2.7 % decrease in August. During these periods there was also a rise in service prices. It is worth noting that these changes occurred amidst a slowdown in Armenia's economic activity, decreasing from 10.4% to 9% annually from January to August 2024, and experiencing a more significant drop from 10.9% in August 2023 to 5.6% in August 2024.
In parallel with this, from January to August 2024, there was an acceleration of the already high annual growth rate of foreign trade turnover from 53% to 86.8%. This was a result of more pronounced acceleration of export growth, increasing from 51.8% to 2.1 times, compared to import growth, which increased from 53.8% to 70.9%. At the same time, the growth rate of foreign trade turnover in August 2024 compared to August 2023 accelerated from 10% to 33.3%, which was due to a sharp increase in export growth from 6.1% to 58.1%, with a less noticeable acceleration in import growth from 12.4% to 18.7%. (The average settlement exchange rate of the AMD in January-August 2024 was AMD 394.08 / $ 1).
