Lower economic activity growth in Armenia 

ArmInfo.In Armenia, economic activity growth in January-April 2025 slowed significantly to 4.4%  per annum (from 13.2% in the same period of 2024).

Moreover, the industrial sector, which acted as a growth driver a  year earlier, is now in a double-digit decline. According to  preliminary data from the RA Statistical Committee, this was  accompanied by a deterioration in the foreign trade trend from  several-fold growth to a significant decline.

According to statistics, such a pronounced slowdown in economic  activity growth in January-April 2025 was largely due to the  deterioration in the annual dynamics of the industrial sector from  26.8% growth to 16.1% decline and a strong slowdown in the growth of  the trade sector from 26.7% to 5.2%. At the same time, the service  sector managed to accelerate in annual growth from 3.9% to 9.9%,  which was also noted in the construction sector - from 13.7% to 15%.  The energy complex has become somewhat more active, its growth has  accelerated from a stagnant 0.4% to 2.6%.

According to statistical data for January-April 2025, the trade  sector holds the lead in absolute value with a volume of 1.9 trillion  drams ($4.8 billion). The second place in terms of volume is occupied  by the service sector - 1.2 trillion drams ($2.98 billion), the third  place is occupied by the industrial sector - 812.3 billion drams  ($2.1 billion), and in fourth place, due to the lack of data on the  agricultural sector in this statistical report, is the construction  sector - 116.6 billion drams ($295.7 million). The volume of  electricity generation in January-April 2025 amounted to 3129.6  million kWh, of which 654.6 million kWh were generated in April  alone.

At the same time, in April 2025 compared to April 2024, economic  activity also stalled in growth to 5.4% (from 10.4% a year earlier),  and in April alone, growth slowed from 11.9% to 4.3% (against a  deterioration in the dynamics for April 2024 from 10.4% growth to  0.1% decline). Moreover, in April 2025, the dynamics of the  industrial sector worsened from 15.9% growth to 3.9% decline, which  was also recorded a year earlier in the same month, when the trend  reversed from 0.2% towards a double-digit 13.4% decline.  In April,  in addition to the industrial sector, the dynamics of the services  sector also worsened - from 11.5% growth to a 0.8% decline, while  there was a slowdown in the construction sector - from 31.9% to 18%,  and in the trade sector - from 16.9% to 1.4%. And the energy complex  accelerated its decline in April from 6.4% to 15.1%.

In annual terms (April 2025 to April 2024), all sectors demonstrated  an upward trend, except for the industrial sector (8.7%) and the  energy complex (2%), which found themselves in decline. In  particular, the construction sector showed the highest annual growth  - 17.9%, followed by the services sector - 5.6% and the trade sector  - 3.2%. A year earlier, in April 2024 to April 2023, all sectors  showed growth: the trade sector - by 27.2%, the construction sector -  by 17.8%, the industrial sector - by 16.3%, the energy complex - by  7.2%, the service sector - by 0.8%.

Against this background, Armenia's foreign trade turnover in  January-April 2025 amounted to 2.5 trillion drams ($6.3 billion),  down 52.9% per annum (versus a 2.4-fold increase a year ago). This is  due to a significant decline in both exports and imports - by 60.3%  and 46.5% per annum, respectively, while last year both indicators  showed significant growth - 2.8 times (exports) and 2.1 times  (imports). As a result, the absolute value of exports for  January-April 2025 amounted to 953.7 billion drams ($2.4 billion),  and imports - 1.5 trillion drams ($3.9 billion).

In April 2025, compared to April 2024, foreign trade turnover fell by  50.1% due to a reduction in both exports by 57.3% and imports by  43.8%, while a year earlier in April 2024, compared to April 2023,  foreign trade turnover showed a significant increase of 2.7 times due  to a significant increase in both exports and imports by 2.9-2.6  times.

Since 2023, the methodology for calculating the volume of generated  electricity has changed in statistical reports, in particular, the  volume of electricity generated by autonomous producers has also  begun to be taken into account. For the agricultural sector, data are  published only in quarterly and annual statistical reports. (The  average calculated exchange rate of the dram in January-April 2025  was 394.24 drams / $ 1).