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Armenia Economy 1996
Under the old Soviet central planning system, Armenia had developed a more
modern industrial sector, supplying machine building equipment, textiles,
and other manufactured goods to sister republics in exchange for raw
materials and energy resources. Armenia is a large food importer and its
mineral deposits (gold, bauxite) are small. The economic decline in recent
years (1991-94) has been particularly severe due to the ongoing conflict
over the ethnic Armenian-dominated region of Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan and Turkey have blockaded pipeline and railroad traffic to
Armenia for its support of the Karabakh Armenians. This has left Armenia
with chronic energy shortages because of a lack of capacity and frequent
disruptions of natural gas deliveries through unstable Georgia, as well as
difficulties in obtaining other types of fuel. In addition, bread is
strictly rationed and there are shortages of other goods. In 1994, the
economy seemed to bottom out. The government has managed to increase its
financial and budgetary discipline, bringing inflation down from around 40%
per month in first half 1994 to single digits in second half 1994 and the
first quarter of 1995. A full economic recovery cannot be expected until the
conflict is settled and the blockade lifted.
GDP - purchasing power parity - $8.1 billion (1994 estimate as extrapolated
from World Bank estimate for 1992)
-
National product real growth rate:
-
National product per capita:
-
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
27% per month average (1994 est.)
6.5% of officially registered unemployed but large numbers of underemployed
(1994 est.)
$NA, including capital expenditures of $NA
$43 million to countries outside the FSU (f.o.b., 1994)
gold and jewelry, aluminum, transport equipment, electrical equipment
Iran, Russia, Turkmenistan, Georgia
$120 million from countries outside the FSU (c.i.f., 1994)
grain, other foods, fuel, other energy
Iran, Russia, Turkmenistan, Georgia, US, EU
growth rate 7% (1994 est.); accounts for 41% of GDP
traditionally diverse, including (as a percent of output of former USSR)
metalcutting machine tools (5.5%), forging-pressing machines (1.9%),
electric motors (9%), tires (1.5%), knitted wear (4.4%), hosiery (3.0%),
shoes (2.2%), silk fabric (0.8%), washing machines (2.0%), chemicals,
trucks, watches, instruments, and microelectronics (1990); currently, much
of industry is shut down
only 17% of land area is arable; employs 31% of labor force as residents
increasingly turn to subsistence agriculture; fruits (especially grapes) and
vegetable farming, minor livestock sector; vineyards near Yerevan are famous
for brandy and other liqueurs
illicit cultivator of cannabis mostly for domestic consumption; used as a
transshipment point for illicit drugs to Western Europe
considerable humanitarian aid, mostly food and energy products, from US and
EU; Russia granted 60 billion rubles in technical credits in late 1994 and
approved a 110 billion ruble credit almost half of which was to go toward
the restart of the Metsamor nuclear power plant
1 dram = 100 luma (introduced new currency in November 1993)
dram per US$1 - 406 (end December 1994)
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