ArmInfo. How much would Armenia's economic growth have been if there were no two factors contributing to growth, namely, the export/re-export of goods and the increase in demand due to the influx of forcibly deported citizens of Artsakh? This question was asked by Artur Khachatryan, a member of the opposition Hayastan faction, to Finance Minister Vahe Hovhannisyan during the presentation of the budget execution for January-September 2024 at the NA meeting on financial, budgetary and credit issues on January 13.
According to preliminary statistics, the growth of economic activity (REA) in January-September 2024 slowed to 8.7% per annum (from 9.7% in the same period of 2023). The growth was largely due to the trade sector - with a slowdown in rates from 23.3% to 19.5%, the construction sector - with a slowdown in annual rates from 17% to 15.9%, and the industrial sector - with an exit from a 0.6% decline to 12.6% growth. Moreover, in September 2024, compared to September 2023, economic activity growth accelerated from last year's 5.6% to the reported 7%, and in September alone it slowed to 6.6% from August's 7.2% (against a slowdown in growth in September 2023 from 6.2% to 3.7%). Armenia's foreign trade turnover reached 9.4 trillion drams ($23.7 billion), with an acceleration of the already high annual growth rate to 73.5% (from 45.8% in the same period of 2023). This is due to a more pronounced acceleration of high rates of annual growth in exports - from 44.8% to 2.1 times, than imports - from 46.4% to 54.2%, the absolute value of which amounted to 4.2 trillion and 5.2 trillion drams ($10.6 billion and $13.1 billion), respectively.
, - the head of the Ministry of Finance responded, adding that from the obtained figure, they were unable to only the figure for the trade sector.
At the same time, the minister refrained from answering the question of to what extent the influx of forcibly deported citizens of Artsakh affected demand.
In turn, the head of the State Revenue Committee Eduard Hakobyan (formerly the Deputy Minister of Finance, in charge of macroeconomics), noted that residents of Artsakh had previously consumed Armenian goods, . , - he assured. Let us recall that at the end of December 2024, the Ministry of Finance of Armenia once again reduced its expectations for GDP growth in 2024 - from 5.8% to 5-5.5%. Meanwhile, in the approved budget, the indicator was set at 7%, and in September the forecast was revised to 5.8%.
