Monday, October 26 2020 14:22

ArmInfo. In Armenia, economic activity in January-September 2020 deepened even more into recession - up to 6.6%, against the background of rapidly decreasing volumes of  exports and imports.

In September 2020 by September 2019, economic  activity decreased by 7.5%, while in September 2020 alone, it  accelerated growth to 10.6% from 7.4% in August. A year earlier, in  January-September 2019, against the same period of 2018, economic  activity increased by 7.1%, in September compared to September 2018 -  by 7.8%, and the same growth (by 7.8%) was recorded in September 2019  alone.

According to the preliminary data of the Statistical Committee of the  Republic of Armenia, the industries that previously acted as drivers  of the growth of economic activity are now in decline, amid the  coronavirus crisis and martial law due to the hostilities in the zone  of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and even the industrial and  agricultural sectors are approaching stagnation. So, in  January-September 2020, the only sectors that remained in growth were  the industrial sector, the agricultural sector and the energy complex  - 1%, 0.5% and 1.5% per annum, respectively. And the rest of the  industries showed a serious decline:  construction - by 15.7%, trade  - 11.4%, services - by 11.7%. A year earlier, in January-September  2019, the growth of economic activity was mainly determined by the  service sector and the industrial sector - by 15.5% and 9.7% per  annum, respectively, and to a lesser extent - by trade and  construction - by 8.8% and 4.4 %, respectively, while the energy  complex and the agricultural sector at that time were in decline - by  2.2% and 4.8%, respectively.

The industrial product price index increased in January-September  2020 compared to the same period in 2019 by 1.8%, in September 2020  compared to September 2019 - by 3.9%, and in September 2020 alone,  growth slowed down to 0.9% from August 2%. A year earlier, in  January-September 2019 compared to the same period in 2018, the  industrial product price index increased by 0.5%, in September 2019  compared to September 2018 - by 3.1%, and in September 2019 alone -  by 1.4%.

In monthly terms (for September), a decisive impetus to the growth of  economic activity was given by the construction sector, which  increased its volumes by 9.4% (against an increase of 4.9% in  September 2019 and 29.8% growth in August 2020), and in to a  relatively lesser extent, the trade sector - 5.2% (against 0.6%  growth in September 2019 and 0.4% growth in August 2020), the service  sector - by 4.1% (against 3.6% - growth in September 2019 and 4.3%  growth in August 2020) and the industrial sector - 3.1% (against 0.6%  growth in September 2019 and 8.4% growth in August 2020). The energy  complex, after weakening growth in August 2020 to 1.6% from 16.2% in  July, went into a 3.7% decline in September (against an 8.8% decline  in September 2019).

In y-o-y terms (September 2020 versus September 2019), only the  industrial sector and the construction sector maintained in growth -  by 1.8% and 0.6%, respectively, and the rest of the sectors showed a  decline:  the service sector- 18.3%, trade sector - 10.8%, energy  complex - 1.7%. A year earlier, in September 2019 to September 2018,  these areas were in growth, and the service sector and the industrial  sector were in the lead at 15.1% and 11%, followed by: energy complex  - 9.3%, trade sector - 7.5%, and construction sector - 4.2%.   According to statistics in January-September 2020, the absolute  leadership is held by the trade sector with a volume of 2.04 trillion  drams ($ 4.2 billion). The second position was fixed for the  industrial sector with a volume of 1.4 trillion ($ 2.96 billion), the  third one was held by the services sector - 1.3 trillion drams ($ 2.6  billion), the fourth continues to be occupied by the agricultural  sector - 555.2 billion drams ($ 1.15 billion), and the fifth - the  construction sector - 224.3 billion drams ($ 463.3 million). The  volume of electricity generation amounted to 5737 million kWh in  January-September 2020, of which in September alone -632.2 million  kWh

Armenia's foreign trade turnover in January-September 2020 amounted  to 2.4 trillion drams ($ 5.05 billion), being in a decline of 10.5%  per annum. Moreover, the reduction in import volumes turned out to be  more significant - by 13.7% to 1.6 trillion drams ($ 3.2 billion)  than exports - by 4.4% to 884.9 billion drams ($ 1.8 billion). In  September 2020, the growth of foreign trade turnover slowed down from  5.8% to 4.9%, due to a slowdown in import growth from 7.3% to 2.7%,  while export growth accelerated from 3.4% to 8.7%. And in September  2020, compared with September 2019, a 12.4% decrease in foreign trade  turnover was provoked by a 20.4% decline in imports, while exports  grew by 4.6%. A year earlier, in January-September 2019, an increase  in Armenia's foreign trade turnover by 5.8% was provoked by an  increase in exports by 7.9% and imports - by 4.7%, in September  alone, foreign trade turnover increased by 13.1% due to an increase  in imports by 20.5% with a stagnant 0.2% growth in exports, and  compared to September 2018, the growth of foreign trade turnover by  30.1% came from both exports by 33% and imports by 28.8%.

The average calculated AMD exchange rate was 486.69 AMD / $ 1 in  September 2020, and 484.20 AMD / $ 1 in January-September 2020,  against 476.23 AMD / $ 1 - in September 2019 and 481.52 AMD / $ 1 -  in January -September 2019.