ArmInfo. In October, amidst a growing tourist flow and accelerating dynamics in the mining industry, export of agricultural products, canned goods, and alcoholic beverages, we are witnessing a prolonged decline in the re-export of gold. This was stated by Economy Minister Gevorg Papoyan in an interview with Public Television of Armenia.
When asked if gold re-export makes up a significant portion of exports, the minister did not deny it, but noted that the role of re-exports has decreased significantly, especially in recent months, In particular, he said that compared to the last 10-12 months, gold re-export has decreased by 10 times. "We are now very close to the real volumes of our exports," Papoyan said. Speaking about the diversification of export destinations, the department head noted that given the strong economic ties with Russia, the sanctions against the latter have indirectly affected the Armenian economy. He reported that certain goods have shifted from the European market to the Chinese one. "I can say that we have significantly increased export deliveries in the eastern, southern and northern directions. However, we are seeing a decline in the western direction with several countries," Papoyan said.
It should be noted that in May of this year, Aghasi Tavadyan, an economist and Associate Professor of the Armenian State University of Economics, pointed out that over the past two and a half years, significant changes have occurred in Armenia's trade turnover structure. According to him, precious stones and metals (TN VED 71), mainly gold exports, have become the dominant export sector. Re-export of precious stones and metals accounted for about 1/3 of total exports in 2023. he emphasized.
According to statistics, from January to September 2024, the share of precious metals and stones in Armenia's foreign trade increased to 55.5% from 15.4% the previous year. The dominance of imports and exports of precious metals and stones was 47% and 66%, respectively, up from 12% and 21% the previous year. During the reporting period, $6.2 billion worth of these products were imported and $6.96 billion worth were exported. In both cases, the already high annual growth rates accelerated even more, by 6.1 and 6.3 times, respectively. Experts suggest that the significant dominance of precious metals and stones in exports and imports, despite low production volumes in the jewelry industry, indicates re-exports and re- imports. This is supported by data from January to September 2024.
According to customs data for the first half of 2024, the majority of gold exports went to the UAE (84.2%), and imports to Russia - 95.9%. The largest volume of diamonds was also exported to the UAE (82.7%), with imports primarily coming from India (45.2%), Russia (21.4%) and Hong Kong (19.7%). It should be noted that according to preliminary statistics, Armenia's foreign trade turnover in January-October 2024 reached AMD 10.3 trillion ($26.2 billion), with an acceleration of the already high annual growth rate to 67.6% (up from 41.2% in the same period of 2023). This is attributed to a more pronounced increased in the annual growth rate of exports, rising from 38.5% to 95.1%, compared to imports, which increased from 42.9% to 50.8%. The total value of imports was AMD 4.5 trillion ($11.5 billion) and AMD 5.8 trillion drams ($14.7 billion) for exports.
