ArmInfo. Armenia's dominant export item, mineral raw materials, has increased significantly in volume, while its main import item, machinery and equipment, has recovered from a recession to strong double-digit growth. This is evidenced by data from the RA Statistics Committee for January-July 2026.
The second, third, and fourth positions in exports are occupied by finished food products, machinery and equipment, and precious metals/stones, while in imports they include land/air/water transport vehicles, mineral raw materials, and finished food products. Fifth place in exports is occupied by base metals/stones, while in imports, chemical products.
In total, the share of the top five items in exports is 82% ($3.3 billion) and 64% ($4.8 billion). Moreover, precious metals/stones continue to decline significantly in both exports and imports, having lost their lead in imports last year to machinery and mechanisms, and subsequently dropped out of the top five, and now, in exports, having yielded leadership to mineral raw materials and barely holding on to the top five. It is noteworthy that base metals/stones, among the five leading export items, increased their annual dynamics from a 10.7% decline to 7.7% growth, while land/air/water transport, which took the second position in imports, accelerated their annual double-digit growth from 27.5% to 38.2%.
Thus, during the reporting period, mineral raw materials worth more than $1.1 billion (27.4% of the total volume) were exported, finished food products worth $679.9 million (16.8%), machinery and mechanisms worth $679.2 million (16.8%), precious metals/stones worth $657.4 million (16.3%), and base metals/stones worth $184.7 million (4.6%). Machinery and mechanisms worth more than $2 billion (26.8%) were imported, along with land/air/water transport worth $852.1 million (11.4%), mineral raw materials worth $829.5 million (11.1%), finished food products worth $601.4 million (8%), and chemical products worth $501.6 million (6.7%).
Let's look at the annual dynamics of these goods in terms of exports and imports. In particular, mineral raw material exports accelerated significantly, reaching a significant 76.6%, while import growth accelerated to 28.3%. Finished food products experienced even more rapid growth in imports, reaching 32.8%, while export growth slowed to 2.1%. Machinery and equipment recovered from a decline in imports by 37.7%, while slowing the decline in exports to a meager 1%, while precious metals and stones significantly decreased in both exports and imports - by 54.5-65.7%. As for imports of land/air/water transport, their volume increased year-on-year by 38.2%, with an accelerating pace, while the significantly smaller volume of their exports recovered from a significant decline to double-digit 38.8% growth. Base metals/stones in exports brought the dynamics from a double-digit decline to a moderate 7.7% growth, while significantly slowing in growth in imports to a meager 1.4%. Chemical industry imports accelerated to a double-digit 31.2%, while exports slowed to 10.5%.
According to statistics, total exports in January-July 2026 reached $4.04 billion, while imports exceeded $7.5 billion. Exports remained in decline, but with an annual growth rate slowing from 49.6% to 7.9%, while imports recovered from a 35.8% decline to 7.7% growth.
By country, exports and imports to the EAEU decreased by 7.2-26.1% (due to a decline to the Russian Federation of 8-28.8%), while significantly increasing to the EU by 70.7-52.7%. Moreover, exports to most EU countries increased significantly, and imports to some of them also increased. Export and import growth during the reporting period was also recorded for Brazil, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Among CIS countries, exports and imports increased significantly for Ukraine and Turkmenistan. Among the EAEU countries, Kyrgyzstan significantly increased both exports and imports, while Kazakhstan and Belarus significantly increased imports alone. For China, improved export dynamics, with imports emerging from recession and growing significantly, were accompanied by a sharp slowdown in import growth. The opposite was observed for the United States, with imports emerging from recession and growing at high double-digit rates, while export decline accelerated.
Russia and China occupy the top two positions in exports and imports. The UAE, Iraq, and Bulgaria are next in the top five for exports, while Iran, Germany, and the United States are the top five for imports.
