Armenia back on track of economic development: Finance minister

Armenia back on track of economic development: Finance minister
ARKA, 23.06.2010

Armenia is back on the track of economic development, finance minister Tigran Davtian said today in comments on an 8.8% GDP growth reported for the first five months of the year.

‘Today we can say that economic growth in Armenia is on a steady track and I think we should have serious expectations of even greater than predicted full-year economic expansion,’ he said. The projected economic growth for this year in the budget is 1.2%.

Speaking to journalists, Tigran Davtian said the country’s real sector economy is seeing an intensive recovery. ‘For the first time over the last several years we have registered a substantial industrial growth as well as in energy sector,’ he said.

In his words, although all economic growth indicators should be reviewed against the backdrop of last year’s severe decline, nonetheless, ‘it is important that Armenian exports growth rate is larger than that of imports.’

According to the latest government data, Armenia’s foreign trade in Jan.-May totaled $1.776 billion (or 686.6 billion Drams) rising year-on-year by 34.5%. Armenia’s industrial output in Jan.-May grew by 12.1% year-on-year to 305.1 billion Drams. Construction sector reported a 12.5% growth rising to 108.8 billion Drams. By the way, in May it rose by 109.9% from April. Electrical power production in the reporting period grew by 14.6% to 2.6 billion KWh. -0-