2016 will be more positive than we expected-Minister

Armenia’s Minister of Economy Karen Chshmarityan said at a meeting with reporters on Wednesday, that increasing foreign trade turnover requires expanding the geography and export and import, addressing a message to Armenian businessmen.

“We have recorded a decline in our trade with our traditional partners – Russia and the European Union (EU) member-states – and, on the other hand, an increase in our trade with other countries.

That is, we have expanded the geography. The major reason for the decline is the fluctuations on the Russian market,” Mr Chsmarityan said.

He stress that there is an 8% decline in Armenia’s foreign trade as compared with 2014.
Speaking of the domestic trade turnover, he said that it totaled AMD 2,282,000,000,000 last year, a 6.4% decrease as compared with 2014.

“We observe a 40% fall in the transfers, but the domestic turnover has dropped by 6/4%. This demonstrates the flexibility of companies which have done all their best to prevent a significant decline,” the minister noted.

The foreign investments increased by 80% to $286.6 in January-September 2015 against the previous year’s records, with the domestic investments amounting to $262 million.

He added that the foreign investments came mainly from Switzerland, Germany, Luxemburg, France, and the United States.

They were directed to electricity, processing industries, wholesale and retail trade and other sectors.