Armenia’s economic growth to top estimated forecasts – minister

Armenia’s minister of finance on Monday shared his positive expectations of the coming months' economic growth, which he said will top the estimated 3.2% ceiling predicted earlier by the government.

In a speech summing up their annual statistics, Vardan Aramyan said they expect to secure a 4.3% growth by late 2017.

“All our models, and the existing set of tools allow us to state that we will have a 4.3% real growth instead of the estimated 3.2%,” he said, noting that the recorded progress was 6.2% from January until August.

But he refrained from comments on the investment dynamics, saying that they trust more the Ministry of Economic Development and Investments (which says that they have already attracted $400 million out of the expected $832 million) as a responsible agency.

As another important index contributing to a positive dynamics, the minister highlighted the economic activity index, which increased by 5.5% in the past months. “We have absolutely no surprise in any sector with the exception of agriculture which recorded a 25% decline,” he said, citing the base effect as a major contributing factor accounting for the negative growth.