ArmInfo. In Armenia, the economic growth rate in the first half of 2025 slowed down to 6.3% annually (down from 10.4% in the same period of 2024). Moreover, the industrial sector, which was one of the growth drivers the previous year, has weakened, resulting in a current double-digit decline in overall economic growth. Final data from the RA Statistical Committee also show a negative shift in foreign trade trends, moving from substantial growth to a significant decline.
According to statistics, such a significant economic activity slowdown in the first half of 2025 was mainly caused by a decline in the industrial sector's annual dynamics from 18.2% to a 12.1% decline, as well as a notable slowdown in trade sector growth from 22.9% to 3.9%. The energy complex saw a slight increase in growth rates from 2.2% to 4%. On the other hand, the service sector managed to accelerate more significantly in annual growth from 4.4% to 9.8%, similar to the construction sector, which increased from 15.7% to 18.5%. Additionally, the agricultural sector saw an acceleration in annual growth from 4% to 7.3%.
In the first half of 2025, the trade sector leads in absolute terms with a volume of 2.95 trillion drams ($7.5 billion). The service sector comes in second - 1.8 trillion drams ($4.6 billion), followed by the industrial sector - 1.3 trillion drams ($3.2 billion), the agricultural sector - 316.1 billion drams ($807.8 million), and s the construction sector - 224.9 billion drams ($574.7 million). The volume of electricity generation in the first half of 2025 was 4694.7 million kWh, with 701.8 million kWh generated in June alone. Economic activity in June 2025 accelerated in growth to 8.6% compared to June 2024. In June alone, growth increased from 5.4% to 8.8% (compared to a more pronounced acceleration of growth in June 2024 from 2% to 11.3%). In June 2025, the growth of the industrial sector slowed down from 2.9% to 2.5%, while a year earlier, a deeper decline was recorded from 0.2% to 2.4%.
In June, there was a slowdown in growth in the construction sector - from 24.8% to 21.1% and in the service sector - from 1.8% to 1.3%. However, an improvement in dynamics was observed in June in the trade sector - from a 0.9% decline to 6.2% growth, and in the energy complex - from an 11.4% decline to 6.4% growth. In annual terms (June 2025 to June 2024), all sectors demonstrated an upward trend, except for the industrial sector, which experienced a decline (1.2%). Specifically, the construction sector showed the highest annual growth - 22.6%, followed by the services sector - 8.2%, the energy complex - 6.6%, and the trade sector - 2.8%. A year earlier, from June 2024 to June 2023, all sectors, except for the energy complex (a decline of 1.9%), showed growth: the construction sector - by 18%, the trade sector - by 16.2%, the services sector - by 7.8%, the industrial sector - by 1.4%. Against this backdrop, Armenia's foreign trade turnover in the first half of 2025 amounted to 3.8 trillion drams ($9.7 billion), marking a 45% decline compared to the previous year (which had seen 2-fold increase). This is due to significant decreases in exports and imports - by 52.8% and 38.6% per annum, respectively, while last year both indicators showed significant growth - 2.3 times (exports) and 86.5% (imports). As a result, the absolute value of exports for the first half of 2025 amounted to 1.5 trillion drams ($3.8 billion), and imports - 2.3 trillion drams ($5.9 billion). In June 2025, compared to June 2024, foreign trade turnover fell by 16.6% due to a decrease in both exports by 15.9% and imports by 17.1%. A year earlier, in June 2024 compared to June 2023, foreign trade turnover had increased by 34.6% due to a significant increase in exports by 59.9% and a moderate increase in imports by 20.6%.
Note that since 2023, there has been a change in methodology used to calculate the volumes of generated power in statistical reports. Specifically, the volumes of electricity generated by autonomous producers are now being considered. Date for the agricultural sector is only published in quarterly and annual statistical reports. (The average exchange rate of the dram in January-June 2025 was AMD 391.31 /$1).
