According to the information published by the national statistics service, Armenia’s economic activity rate for June (compared to the same month of the previous year) was 2.3%. In May this rate was equal to 9.9%, which made the authorities happy. In April it was 7.7%. This means that the economic growth is becoming slower. As always, this time too there is a rate which will save the situation.
The statistics services have registered very good rates in the sector of production. In June the capacity of production was 87.2 billion drams, which is more by 24.7% than the same rate in the past year, and more by 5.8% than this rate in May.
Production of electricity has grown by 16.4%. In June 637.4 million kwt/h electricity was produced. In The sector of agriculture we had a growth in June as well and the growth in June compared to the same month of the previous year was 10.1%, and compared to May of this year the growth was more than 40%.
The capacity of services in June was 73 billion drams. This sector has grown as well and the growth rate reached 4.9%.
The only sector that failed to grow in June was the sector of construction. Compared to June of the previous year the capacity of the work in the sector of construction reduced by 31.3% and was equal to 39.7 billion drams. However, the failure of one of the most important sectors of the economy can be introduced as an achievement at first glance. Our government likes to speak of diversification of the economy much. This means that they should reduce the capacity of the construction sector in the economy and encourage the other sectors. By reducing we do not mean resisting the growth but the vice versa; i.e. this sector should still grow but the others should grow even faster.
According to the information of the statistics services, in June the average salary was 114.138 drams, which is more by 4.9% than the rate of the same period of the previous year. However, the salaries are still keeping behind the inflation and according to the official statistics during 12 months the consumer prices have grown by 8.5%.
The dynamics is positive in the sector of foreign trade. Compared to June of the previous year the export has grown by 32.5% and reached 115.6 million dollars, and the import grew by 4.3% (the import capacity in June was 325.4 million dollars). In June the negative balance of foreign trade was approximately 210 million dollars. This means that for six months the negative balance of Armenia’s foreign trade is approaching to 1.3 billion dollars.
These are the preliminary data for the past six months. These are preliminary data and show only monthly comparisons. The statistics services will present the comprehensive analysis for January-June shortly.