The government continues to predict 7% growth for the year, with the possibility of surpassing it in case of preserving the current pace.
Services ensured most of the growth – 26,9%.
“We have rather positive dynamics in other branches also, with the exception of agriculture,” says Eduard Hakobyan, Director of Macroeconomic Policy Department at the Ministry of Finance.
“The expectations of economic developments were pessimistic but factually we have a situation when positive risks materialized and we have high economic growth. How did this happen? All professional forecast institutions predicted around 2% economic growth for Armenia in the beginning of the year. We have the Russian-Ukrainian conflict with all its negative consequences, with deep decline expected in Russia, which, certainly, should’ve impacted the Armenian economy. Russia is an important trade-economic partner for Armenia with several connections: export and import, tourism flows, remittances and foreign investments. We had negative expectations from this perspective. But starting from the fourth month we saw rather impressive growth in all directions. Both in exports to Russia, remittances from Russia, foreign investments and tourism, with the latter being the key. These developments led to capital and tourism flows, which is so to say a “positive shock” for the economy. We have rather impressive developments in 4-5 directions, especially in the service sector, tourism-related sectors, accommodation, hotels, restaurants, also real estate, the financial system and transport. I am speaking about people and capital. People moved to Armenia, some companies relocated here, people brought certain capital flows with them. In a...
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