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| April 30 /Panarmenian.net/ On April 25, Armenia's Ambassador to China Vahagn Movsisyan met with head of the European Affairs Department at the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, co-chair of the Armenian-Chinese intergovernmental commission Sui Tunkaya, the RA MFA press office reported.
Noting the potential of bilateral relations, the officials discussed the first-ever Armenian-Chinese business forum to be held in Beijing in June with participation of over 20 major Armenian companies. |  Full Story |
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 Yerevan, April 15 /Armenialiberty.org/ By Shake Avoyan
Armenian authorities on Tuesday announced plans to terminate the state subsidy on supplies of natural gas to households and enterprises across Armenia beginning next month.
In his first press briefing in the government building, Armenia's newly appointed Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian said the decision would become effective already on May 1.
Beginning on April 1, 2006, prices for gas supplied to Armenia were raised from $56 to $110 per a thousand cubic meters. To alleviate the burden for households and enterprises the same year the government decided to allocate a subsidy. | | Full Story |
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 Yerevan, April 2, 2008 /ARKA/. Average monthly nominal wages was 83,780 Drams in Armenia in January-February, which is a 22.5% increase against the same period of year before, Armenia's National Statistical Service reported.
Monthly average salary in budgetary organizations increased 14.5% up to 58,889Drams. | | Full Story |
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 March 27, /Panorama.am/.In May 2008 a tender will be announced for the cell phone third operator in Armenia. It is possible to apply to the tender committee which is headed by the minister of transport and communication within 90 days after the tender is announced.
Panorama.am was informed from the ministry's public relations department that the company's should compete for getting license of GSM 900/1800 standard. | | Full Story |
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| March 27, /Panorama.am/. "Step Logic" center opened in Armenia which is the only one in the region. The deputy director of "Step Logic" LLC Evgeni Yudickin said that the company treated Armenia as the country having IT strong potential. The venue of the company to Armenia is connected with the "ArmenTel" company's transport network creation. | | Full Story |
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 Yerevan, February 26, Armenpress: The Lusakert pedigree poultry farm has constructed a biogas processing plant. The nature protection ministry said the plant is part of Armenia's efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Armenia is a signatory to Kyoto Protocol.
The plant will reduce the amount of biogas emitted by waste disposal of the poultry farm. Until lately the waste and droppings of the farm that ahs over 400,000 chickens were poured out to several small lakes becoming a hotbed of pollution. | | Full Story |
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 Yerevan, February 18. /ARKA/. Armenia has all the required resources for setting up an international healthcare center, Armenia's Minister of Trade and Economic Development Nerses Yeritsian in making a speech during the international economic forum "Bridge 2008" in Tsakhkadzor.
Yeritsian reminded that the Government set an objective to establish such a center. The Minister pressed the importance of the discussions on the future of science and technologies, medical and biotechnologies in particular, held recently under the World Economic Forum in Davos. | | Full Story |
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 Yerevan, February 18, Armenpress: ArmenAl foil mill facility in Yerevan, owned by Russian RusAl, manufactured last year 12,256 tons of products, Alexander Melkumian, a press officer for ArmenAl, told Armenpress.
He said 1,010 tons were produced in December alone. In 2006 the plant produced only 945 tons of foil.
He said the modernization program that has provided for a major upgrade in foil rolling equipment and the establishment of a full production cycle are expected to lift the plant capacity by 25,000 tons of foil per year, including 18,000 tons of highly profitable thin foil in 6-9 micron gauge. | | Full Story |
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Yerevan, February 6, 2008. /ARKA/. 389 enterprises with foreign investments were registered in Armenia in 2007.
According to Armenia's National Statistical Service, investments in these organizations totaled 4,533.87mln Drams. Of them, 1773.34mln Drams were investments in 145 enterprises with both local and foreign founders. | | Full Story |
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 Yerevan, January 29. /ARKA/. The Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum Plant led the top 1000 taxpayer's chart in Armenia in 2007, according to the RA Tax Service. The company paid AMD 33.6bln to the state budget in 2007 against AMD 32.8bln in 2006. Out of the total sum, AMD 31.7bln was collected by taxation authorities, AMD 1.9bln by the RA Customs Service. The assessed taxes (income tax, tax on profits) and indirect taxes totaled AMD 11.8bln and AMD 19.1bln. | | Full Story |
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 Yerevan, January 23, Armenpress: Foreign investments in Armenia's real sector of economy last year rose to over $600 million, according to trade and economic development minister Nerses Yeritsian.
Speaking at a news conference today the minister said the volume of investments in the first nine months of 2007 rose 58 percent from a year before.
The bulk of foreign investments went last year into mining, telecommunications, IT and aviation sectors. | | Full Story |
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Yerevan, January 22, Armenpress: Deliveries of Russian natural gas to Armenia last year grew nearly 20 percent over the previous year to 2.054. billion cubic meters.
In 2006 overall 1.7 billion cubic meters of Russian gas had been shipped to Armenia across Georgia. | | Full Story |
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 Yerevan, January 17, Armenpress: Over 30 Armenian companies producing brandy, wines, vegetable and fruit preserves, honey and dried fruits will showcase their products at International Green Week fair in Germany's Berlin that opens today.
Armenian agricultural minister David Lokian will lead an Armenian delegation participating in it. Armenian companies were assisted greatly by German KfW bank and GTZ organization.
Farming issues and global supply and demand will be discussed at a special forum and an international conference of agriculture ministers during Green Week, which runs until January 27. | | Full Story |
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 Yerevan, January 16, Armenpress: Armenia has significantly improved its standing as a free economy moving from 32nd place in 2006 to 28th place in 2007, according to a report released by the Heritage Foundation.
Hong Kong, which prides itself on its laissez-faire economic policy, was ranked the world's freest economy for a 14th straight year by the US based Heritage Foundation.< | | Full Story |
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Rome, January 9, Armenpress: A new US$32.2 million Farmer Market Access Program in Armenia, supported by a US$ 11.9 million loan and a US$500,000 grant from International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), will provide innovative financing for poor rural and peri-urban people to develop profitable on-farm and off-farm small businesses.
IFAD said in a press release that the program will provide loans to people who develop rural microenterprises that have the potential for rapid growth but are held back because they can't qualify for conventional bank loans. | | Full Story |
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 Yerevan, January 8. /ARKA/. Yesterday the Swedish OMX operator became full owner of the Armenian Stock Exchange (ARMEX) and Central Depository of Armenia.
ARMEX reports that a 5-member Supervisory Council is shortly to be formed, with three Council members to represent the OMX and two Armenia.
On December 29, 2007, the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) approved amendments to the Rules of the Armenian Stock Exchange (ARMEX) and RA Central Depository. | | Full Story |
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 January 7. /ARKA/. The International Financial Corporation (IFC) intends to expand its cooperation with both financial organizations and enterprises of the real economic sector in Armenia, the Head of IFC Yerevan Office Nerses Karamanukian told ARKA agency.
The current volume of financing by IFC in Armenia is $19mln, he said. He pointed out that negotiations are held on a couple of programs that will allow increasing the indicator. | | Full Story |
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| Yerevan, December 25, /ARKA/ Per capita GDP may reach $3.3-$3.5ths in Armenia next year. Director of the Armenian Development Agency (ADA) Tigran Davtyan pointed out positive trends involving greater purchasing power, increasing gross domestic product and per capita incomes.
Davtyan also pointed out that Armenia's narrow market is a major obstacle to investments in the country.
"The narrow market creates problems for the establishment of large-scale production," he said. As regards the investment environment, he said that businessmen visiting Armenia are satisfied, pointing out that the real state of affairs is even better than they expect. | | Full Story |
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 Yerevan, December 19, Armenpress: Assistance to Armenia, a charity organization, based in the Swiss town of Schafhausen, plans to reopen a white wine factory in the town of Ijevan in the province of Tavush.
This organization's chairmen Mihran Baronian, an ethnic Armenian, said to Armenpress that the winery has been idle since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
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 December 18. /ARKA/. Armenia's further economic development requires a stable labor market, RA Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Aghvan Vardanyan stated at the forum "Armenia's labor market: challenges and trends".
"It is obvious that we cannot expect further economic development without a stable and balanced labor market. This is possible provided a universal education and employment policy is elaborated and equal regional development is ensured," the Minister said. | | Full Story |
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Yerevan, December 5. /ARKA/. "ArmRosgasprom" Armenian-Russian company invested about $82mln in the period from 2002 to 2007 in implementation of the program on restoration of gas supply and provision of gas connections in the territory of Armenia.
This allowed increasing the level of gas supply coverage in the country from 21% to 90% bringing Armenia to the group of leaders on this indicator not only among CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) countries, but also in the world, the Press Service of ArmRosgasprom reported adding that restoration of gas supply in the country is one of the prioritises in the company's activities. | | Full Story |
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 Yerevan, November 20, Armenpress: Armenian bee-keepers have produced this year some 2,500 tons of honey, more than in 2006. This year's high yield is partly due to abundant precipitation in spring resulting in luxuriant vegetation period.
One bee-hive produced on average 8-9 kg of honey.
Ashot Hovhanesian, head of a department at the agriculture ministry, said officially bee-keepers have 150,000 bee-hives, but unofficially their real number is almost two times higher. | | Full Story |
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 Yerevan, November 16. /ARKA/. Armenian National Assembly Speaker Tigran Torosyan calls the 2008 state budget the first budget of second-breed reforms.
"These reforms are gradually changing lives of people", he said at Thursday's parliamentary session.
The speaker said the budget is better-than-expected conforms to government's action program.
In particular, the program envisages 0,3 to 0.4% growth of tax ratio to GDP while in the 2008 state budget plans 16.9% against 15.7% in 2007. | | Full Story |
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 Yerevan, October 30. /ARKA/. 1392.2mln cubic meters of gas was imported from Russia to Armenia in January-September, which is 259.98mln cubic meters (or 22.9%) more than in the same period of 2006, the Press Service of Armenian-Russian ArmRosgasprom Closed Joint Stock Company reported.
According to the company, the sales of gas totaled 1,237.85mln cubic meters in the period, which is an increase by 221.85mln cubic meters as compared with January-September 2006. | | Full Story |
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October 24. /ARKA/. Armenia is in need of an effective system for controlling unjustified increase in prices, Republican MP Eduard Sharmazanov said at Tuesday's parliamentary session.
He thinks the government would pay greater attention to abuses committed by economy entities and a control system is to be created in the country for preventing unjustified rise in prices.
Sharmazanov doesn't rule out world processes' impact on prices in Armenia, but says that economy entities' joint unfair actions add a great deal to that. | | Full Story |
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 YEREVAN, October 18. /ARKA/. A food exhibition, "Loriprodexpo" has been opened in Vanadzor, Lori region, Armenia. Speaking at the opening ceremony, Lori Vice-Governor Zohrab Torosyan said that the goal of the exhibition is to demonstrate the region's industrial achievements and promotion of production.
"The exhibition will help the local businessmen to determine the market demand," he said. A sale will be organized at the exhibition. | | Full Story |
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| Yerevan, October 16 /ARKA/. Armenian carriers of cargo have got a free access to the ports in the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea, said RA Deputy Minister of Transport Hrant Beglarian.
According to him, signed on October 10, the Armenian-Iranian memorandum on transit traffic cooperation opens a cheaper and shorter way to Central Asian, Middle Eastern and Russian markets.
Armenian carriers of cargo will have an opportunity to convey as transit goods though the territory of Iran to the Bandarabas ports (Persian Gulf) and Enzeli (the Caspian Sea) and from there either to Arab countries or to Aktau (Kazakhstan and Astakhan), the Deputy Minister said. | | Full Story |
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| Yerevan, October 9, /Armenpress/. Transport and communication minister Andranik Manukian said today a tender for concessional management of the Armenian Railways will be announced on October 15.
Manukian said two companies, one from Russia and the other from India, have shown interest in the Armenian Railways. They have asked for tender packages and sent all required documents.
Manukian said the winning company will be announced on December 15 and the subsequent talks are expected to be over by January 15 next year. | | Full Story |
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| The Armenian Copper Program (ACP), a subsidiary of the Manex and Valex Company, issued yesterday its first 500 million Drams worth 10, 000 coupon bonds. The cost of one bond amounts to AMD 50,000. The interest rate is 10 percent and the maturity period is 18 months.The issuance of bonds was handled by ArmSwiss bank. It is also responsible for their distribution.
Fifty percent of bonds are to be distributed by ArmSwiss bank, 20 percent by the Armenian Development Bank, 10 percent by the Future Capital Market company. The remaining 20 percent equaling to 100 million worth will be sold through an open subscription. If no one responds ArmSwiss bank has committed to buy them. | | Full Story |
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| September 26 /Azg/ "We have entered an important stage. We have started implementation of the Armenia-EU Action Plan within the framework of the European Neighborhood Policy," Mr. Gunnar Wiegand, European Commission's Acting Director for Eastern Europe, South Caucasus and Central Asia, told at the press conference in Yerevan.
He added that RA Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian is expected to meet with Mr Raul de Luzenberger, Charge d'Affaires of the Delegation of the EC to Armenia, Mr Javier Solana, the EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy and Mr Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission in Luxembourg on October 15. While RA President Robert Kocharian is to visit Brussels in November. | | Full Story |
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Yerevan, August 30, ARMENPRESS: The government's budget revenues in January-July of this year rose to 289.2 billion Armenian Drams (AMD), while its spending was 282.8 billion AMD.
Armenian finance and economy ministry said these figures represented 56 and 51 percent of respective annual targets. | | Full Story |
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| August 23 /Armenialiberty.org/ By Emil Danielyan - The Armenian government has reported an almost 27 percent year-on-year increase in the amount of various taxes collected during the first half of this year, putting it on track to implement its record-high budget for 2007.
According to the Ministry of Finance and Economy, the government's tax revenues in January-June totaled over 201 billion drams ($597 million), equivalent to 21 percent of Gross Domestic Product.
With most of economic activity in Armenia taking place in the second half and many local businesses forced to pay taxes in advance, the proportion is certain to fall in the coming months. The government's target for 2007 is 15.2 percent, which is 1.7% percentage points higher than the figure registered in 2006. | | Full Story |
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| Yerevan, August 20 /Armenpress/ Armenia's economy grew 12.1 percent in January-July from a year ago to 1.3 trillion Armenian Drams. Armenian Statistical Service said industrial output grew a slight 1.3 percent to 389 billion Drams.
It said power generation not counted, industrial output was 318.5 billion Drams, 0.2 percent higher from a year ago, while diamond industry output not counted, it grew almost 9 percent to 385 billion Drams. | | Full Story |
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| Vanadzor, August 6, Armenpress: A chemical plant in Armenia's third-largest town of Vanadzor has reached an export agreement, the first after it resumed its work after standing idle for years. The agreement was signed recently by Alexander Snegirev, chief manager of the chemical plant and Varoun Seigal, president of an Indian Sigel Trading Corporation. | | Full Story |
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 Yerevan, August 3, Noyan Tapan. Armenia's GDP grew by 11.2% in January-June 2007 on the same months of last year and made 944 bln 845.7 mln drams (about 2 bln 631.3 mln USD). The index-deflator of GDP made 4.9%.
The head of the National Statistical Service (NSS) of the RA Stepan Mnatsakanian announced this at the August 3 press conference. According to him, industrial production increased by 1.4% in the country in January-June of this year on the same months of 2006 and made 327 bln 954.9 mln drams, industrial production without diamonds grew by 8.2% to 325 bln 138 mln drams. | | Full Story |
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 Yerevan, July 23. /Arka/. During 2007-2009, ArmRosgasprom plans to make investments for a total of AMD 52bln (about $150mln), Director General of ArmRosgasprom Karen Karapetyan reported Monday at the presentation of the first issue of the company's coupon bonds.
According to him, these funds will be allocated for reconstruction and provision of conditions for expanding the carrying capacity of the gas transport system. | | Full Story |
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 Yerevan, July 16, 2007. /Arka/. The ArmenTel telecommunication company will be deprived of all the types of monopoly on October 1, 2007.
Chairman of the RA Public Services Regulatory Commission Robert Nazaryan reported that the demonopolization will result in liberalization of the market, which requires new balanced prices.
In his turn, ArmenTel Director General Oleg Bliznyuk reported that the final date for depriving ArmenTel of its monopoly has not actually been set. | | Full Story |
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 July 13, 2007, ArmeniaLiberty.org, By Shakeh Avoyan - A Lebanese company that owns Armenia's largest mobile phone network said on Thursday that it has no plans to sell its subsidiary despite what it described as a strong interest shown by other foreign investors.
An Armenian newspaper report earlier this week said that Russia's largest mobile phone operator, MTS, has offered to purchase the VivaCell network from K-Telecom. Another Russian wireless operator, VimpelCom, already bought Armenia's national telecommunications company, ArmenTel, for about $500 million late last year. | | Full Story |
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 Yerevan, July 9. /Arka/. The Central Bank of Armenia is to lay necessary groundwork for banking sector's 40-percent growth, the Central Bank of Armenia Chairman Tigran Sargsyan said Monday in an interview with Reuters.
"The thing is that financial mediation is underdeveloped in Armenia now because of small market. However, Armenia wants to become the regional financial center", he said. | | Full Story |
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 Yerevan, 9 July. /Arka/. The ARMENTEL telecommunications company has announced a new service - wideband Internet using the ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) technology, which will be available to subscriber to stationary telephone communication in Yerevan.
ArmenTel's press service reports that the package of ADLS-based services includes an AMD 9,600 worth modem (VAT inclusive) and a service activation fee (AMD 4,800). | | Full Story |
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 Yerevan, July 6, Armenpress: The French-owned Yerevan Brandy Company (YBC) sold in 2006-2007 financial year (it lasts from July 1 to next year's June 30) 3,650,000 liters of its products, reporting a 4 percent growth from a year before.
YBC's major markets are in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus and in the Baltic countries. The growth in Russia was lower than expected because of Russia's introduction of new excise stamps. | | Full Story |
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| Yerevan, July 4, Armenpress: Armenia's agricultural production in the first six months of 2007 amounted to 98.3 billion Drams, 1.3 percent up from a year ago.
According to the figures, released by the country's national statistical service, the growth was due to increase in production of milk, by 227,000 tons and meat by 33,000 tons. | | Full Story |
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 Yerevan, July 4. /Arka/. Armenia's Parliament at the second reading adopted changes to the Law "On state budget 2007" envisaging rise in the state budget's supply and revenue by AMD 25bln.
RA Minister of Finance and Economy Vardan Khachatryan said that the adoption of the draft law is accounted for by the fact that the analysis of indices for the first five months of 2007 testifies that the real GDP growth and its nominal amount will exceed forecasts of 2006. | | Full Story |
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 Yerevan, June 27. /Arka/. ArmRosgasprom company spent AMD580mln (about $1.7mln) for construction of the first brine storage on the territory of CIS, Deputy General Director and Chief Engineer of ArmRosgasprom CJSC Ashot Hovsepian said at the opening of the brine storage in the Armenian village of Zovuni.
According to him, the volume of the brine storage is 150,000 cubic meters, which will allow increasing the capacity of Abovian gas storage up to 150mln cubic meters. | | Full Story |
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| Yerevan, June 4 /Armenpress/ Foreign investments in the Armenian economy in the first quarter of 2007 rose 44.6 percent from a year ago to $136.6 million. This figure did not include money received by the government and the Central Bank from external sources.
Armenian National Statistical Service said almost 30 percent of direct investments or $26.4 million, generated from privatization of different entities. This not counting the amount of direct investments from a year ago rose 16,3 percent and that of indirect investments grew 37.5 percent. | | Full Story |
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| May 31 /Armenpress/ In January-April the Armenian government collected 150.2 billion Drams in budget revenues and spent 140.8 billion Drams. The figures made 66.2 and 53.5 percent of revenues and spending respectively, projected by the government for the first six months of the year.
Armenian finance and economy ministry said these figures made 29.6 and 25.9 percent of revenues and spending respectively, projected for the entire year.
It said budget revenues in the first four months of 2007 rose 28.2 percent from a year (33.1 billion Drams), of which 26.5 percent were a taxes and dues, 5.6 billion were off budget revenues, 1.2 billion Drams were incomes from capital operations and 222 million Drams came as official transfers. | | Full Story |
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| Yerevan, May 30 /Armenpress/ A senior official of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said today that around a 25 percent appreciation of Armenia's national currency-Dram-against US Dollar and other hard currencies in the last two years, has had a significant and a very positive impact on the country's macroeconomic situation.
The assessment came from David Owen, a senior advisor of the IMF Middle East and Central Asia Division, who spoke today in Yerevan to media. As a proof he cited an average annual 20 percent growth in exports, saying the preliminary economic indices of the first months of the year show that the positive growth will go on. | | Full Story |
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| May 24, Yerevan /Armenialiberty.org/ By Shakeh Avoyan - The Armenian government approved on Thursday a package of legislative and administrative measures aimed at significantly increasing the presently modest amount of its tax revenues.
The three-year plan of actions envisages the abolition of controversial privileges enjoyed by local and foreign firms, improved tax administration, and a tougher crackdown on widespread tax evasion, a key reason for the uneven distribution of benefits of Armenia's double-digit economic growth.
The tax revenues, the principal source of government expenditures, have steadily grown over the past decade. But they were still equivalent to 14.6 percent of Armenia's Gross Domestic Product last year, one of the lowest proportions in the former Soviet Union. | | Full Story |
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| Yerevan, May 22. /ARKA/. The investments made for completing Hrazdan Thermal Electric Plant's fifth energy block construction total $150mln to 170mln, ArmRosgasprom CJSC General Director Karen Karapetyan said Tuesday in an interview with Gasprom magazine. In his words, the company has already embarked on the project implementation and intends to upgrade the block's power to 440 megawatt.
"Steam-turbine and gas-turbine technologies combination makes the project unique in CIS countries", Karapetyan said in his interview.
In his words, a contract is already signed with the general designer and a tender will be announces soon to choose a contractor. | | Full Story |
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May 14, 2007, /PanARMENIAN.Net/ Content and service provider Inform-Mobil entered the Armenian VAS market. An appropriate agreement was concluded with ArmenTel. Inform-Mobil PR Officer Anton Yakimov told PanARMENIAN.Net that the agreement supposes providing of Inform-Mobil's key interactive product Dating and a multifunctional service Forum. Both services are adapted for end users and translated into Armenian.
The company also plans diversification of business and further escalation to the CIS and foreign markets. | | Full Story |
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Yerevan, May 7, Armenpress: Armenia's foreign trade in the first quarter of the year amounted to $876 million in real prices, the country's national statistical service reported. It said exports amounted to $231.2 million, 25 percent up from a year ago and imports to $645.2 million, marking a 53 percent growth.
The negative trade balance was $413.9 million and without the humanitarian assistance it was $396.7 million. | | Full Story |
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| Yerevan, April 28 /Armenialiberty.org/ Stock exchange operator OMX AB, the largest bourse in the Nordic region, said Friday it has agreed to buy the Armenian bourse and the Central Depositary of Armenia.
It did not disclose the financial terms of the letter of intent it signed with Armenia's government and central bank.
OMX - the result of seven merged Nordic stock exchanges in the past three years - said that even though the Armenian market is quite small, it sees good opportunities for growth in the next few years. This will come from the country's pension reform, changes to the legal framework and more focus on the equity market, it said. | | Full Story |
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 Yerevan, April 26, Armenpress: According to the latest rating of Armenia's biggest corporate taxpayers, issued by the State Taxation Service (STS), the joint Russian-Armenian natural gas operator ArmRosGazprom (ARG) was the biggest taxpayer in the first quarter of the year outrunning the two 'traditional' biggest corporate taxpayers, owned by foreign investors: the Zangezur Copper and Molybdenum Combine and the ArmenTel national telecommunications operator.
ARG paid in the first three months a total of 6. 8 billion Armenian Drams in taxes and customs dues, of which only 91 million Drams as customs dues. | | Full Story |
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 Yerevan, April 23, Armenpress: Armenia's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rose 11 percent in the first quarter of 2007 from a year ago to 311.5 billion Drams, the country's national statistical service said yesterday. It said the industrial output amounted to 152.3 billion Drams, up 4.3 percent from a year ago.
In the first three months Armenian power generating facilities produced 1.6 billion kilowatt/hour electricity, up 0.7 percent from a year ago. Agricultural GDP rose 2.2 percent from a year ago to 44 billion Drams. Construction sector growth rose 16 percent to 32.2 billion Drams. | | Full Story |
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| Yerevan, April 20, Armenpress: Armenia's foreign trade rose to $876.4 million in the first quarter of this year, 44 percent up from a year ago, the country's national statistical service said.
It said without cut diamond trade, the commodity turnover in the reported time span grew 56.4 percent to $792.4 million.
It said also exports made $231.2 million and imports were $645.2 million. Compared with the first quarter of 2006 these figures rose 25 and 53 percent respectively. | | Full Story |
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| April 19, 2007, /PanArmenian.Net/ Russian Vympelkom company completed the deal of obtaining the 10-percent share stocks of "ArmenTel" Telecommunication company from the Armenian Government. The press office of the company reports that the deal totals about € 38.6 million or 1/9 of the final cost that "Vympelkom" paid for the 90 percent of share stocks of "ArmenTel" in 2006. | | Full Story |
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| Yerevan, April 18. /Arka/. In 2006, the gross external assets of the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) increased by 41.96% or by $316,876,779.98 and amounted to $1,071,037,272.79. The CBA press service reports that international reserves (aggregate external assets in hard currency) amounted to $1,072,036,547.46 - a 41.98% increase.
Special Drawing Rights (SDR) in IMF amounted to 9,359,603 or $14,080,604.35 - a $3,903,298.23 or 38.35% increase, with a zero reserve position. Armenia's net external assets totaled $885,455,022,62 - a 87.43% increase, with assets in hard currency amounting to $885,454,297.30. | | Full Story |
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 Yerevan, April 17 /Armenialiberty.org - By Emil Danielyan/ Government officials from Armenia, Iran and Russia will meet soon to discuss an ambitious idea to build a big oil refinery on the Armenian-Iranian border that would cater for the Iranian market.
President Robert Kocharian reportedly discussed the multimillion-dollar project with senior Russian officials during a visit to Moscow in January. A subsidiary of Russia's state-run Gazprom gas monopoly said afterwards that it is considering investing an estimated $1.7 billion needed for the construction of the would-be refinery near the Armenian border town of Meghri. | | Full Story |
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Yerevan, April 10, Armenpress: Armenia's Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) has approved today the investment program of the Armenian Electrical Networks (AEN) company for 2007-2009, whereby the Russian-owned company has pledged to spend a total of 27 billion Drams in the next three years to upgrade one of the biggest power grid facilities of the country.
Yury Gavrilenko, an official of the AEN, owned by a subsidiary of the Russian Unified Energy Systems (UES), said the company plans to invest 12,2 billion Drams this year to upgrade the facility and improve its safety operation. | | Full Story |
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| April 6, 2007. /ARKA/. Armenia's population income growth rate is higher than the GDP growth rate, Armenian Deputy Minister of Trade and Economic Development Tigran Davtian reported. In fact, GDP growth has had effect on the population's incomes, he said. According to him, economy gains momentum, and the economic development tells upon the population. "It's another thing that we want it to tell upon all the layers of the society," Davtian said.
He pointed out that today's average salary in Armenia is almost equivalent to $200 (AMD 68,000), with GDP per capita in USD equivalent exceeding $2,000 ($500 ten years ago). | | Full Story |
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Yerevan, March 30, Armenpress: Armenian taxmen collected 19.9 billion Drams in February in taxes and duties, up from 16.6 billion collected in January.
The press office of the state taxation service said 730 million Drams were collected as excise taxes, profit taxes amounted to 4.9 billion Drams while income taxes rose to 3.2 billion Drams. | | Full Story |
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 March 30, 2007, ArmeniaLiberty.org, By Emil Danielyan - Armenia's decade-long economic growth appears to be continuing unabated, with Gross Domestic Product increasing by 9.4 percent during the first two months of the year, according the latest government data.
The data released by the National Statistical Service (NSS) show that the Armenian economy expanded on the back of a continuing boom in the construction and services sectors that now make up a considerable share of GDP. | | Full Story |
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 Yerevan, March 26. /Arka/. The Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) permitted Inecobank CJSC to participate in the international payment system MasterCard. The CBA press service said that the decision was made by the CBA Board.
Inecobank CJSC was registered ob February 7, 1996. As of December 31, 2006, the assets of the bank made AMD 22.4bln, the total capital - AMD 6.1bln, the balance sheet profit - AMD 2.4bln, the profit for 2006 made AMD 1bln. The bank's authorized capital makes AMD 2.4bln. | | Full Story |
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 March 21, 2007, /PanARMENIAN.Net/ The inauguration of the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline is an important step towards energy security and diversification of energy resources, RA Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian told a news conference in IA Regnum's press center today. Elaboration of a project on construction of an oil pipeline is on the agenda, according to him. "The issue is on the agenda but it's premature to speak of its implementation. Presently we are investigating the expediency of such a project," Oskanian underscored. | | Full Story |
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Yerevan, March 21, Armenpress: Armenia's economic growth between January and February 2007 stood at 9.4%, while the country's GDP totaled 186.8 billion drams ($519.1 million), the national statistics service said.
For the period under review, consumer prices rose 5.1%, year-on-year. | | Full Story |
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March 20, 2007, ArmeniaLiberty.org, By Emil Danielyan and Astghik Bedevian - A U.S. company mining gold in Armenia has initiated an international arbitration of its bitter dispute with Environment Minister Vartan Ayvazian whom it accuses of corruption and other violations of the law.
A lawyer for Global Gold Corporation said on Tuesday that the Connecticut-based company has sued the Armenian government over Ayvazian's controversial decision last year to revoke some of its operating licenses. | | Full Story |
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 March 20, 2007, ArmeniaLiberty.org, By Shakeh Avoyan - In order to sustain its robust economic growth, Armenia needs to embark on "second generation reforms" that would result in better governance, fair competition and more developed financial services, a senior economist from the World Bank said on Tuesday.
Presenting a World Bank study that refers to the Armenian economy as the "Caucasian Tiger," Saumya Mitra lavished praise on the country's "strong" reform record and macroeconomic performance of the past decade. | | Full Story |
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 March 19, 2007, ArmeniaLiberty.org, By Ruzanna Stepanian in Agarak - President Robert Kocharian and his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inaugurated on Monday a long-awaited pipeline that will allow Armenia to import natural gas from Iran and ease its strong dependence on Russian energy resources.
Lighting a symbolic torch, the two leaders officially opened the first Armenian section of the pipeline during a ceremony held in Agarak, a small Armenian town on the Iranian border.
The ceremony was delayed by four hours because rain and fog prevented a helicopter carrying Ahmadinejad and other Iranian officials from crossing into Armenia. | | Full Story |
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Yerevan, March 16, Armenpress: Armenian and Georgian businessmen will build a dairy plant in Georgia, Volodya Badalian, a cochairman of the Georgian-Armenian Cooperation Association said to Armenpress.
He stressed that the future plant will benefit also the Armenian population of southern Georgian region of Javakheti. | | Full Story |
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| March 16, 2007, ArmeniaLiberty.org, By Astghik Bedevian - The presidents of Armenia and Iran will inaugurate on Monday the first Armenian section of a natural gas pipeline connecting their countries, officials in Yerevan said on Friday.
President Robert Kocharian’s press secretary, Victor Soghomonian, told RFE/RL that the opening ceremony will take place near the Armenian border town of Meghri. He said top Iranian officials led by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will attend it along with their Armenian counterparts. | | Full Story |
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Yerevan, March 15. /Arka/. The new ferry service Poti-Caucasus will contribute to the increase in Armenian-Russian commodity turnover, RF Ambassador to Armenia Nikolay Pavlov told reporters. He pointed out that the main difficulty of bilateral economic relations is the transport problem.
"We have great expectations from the commissioning of the Poti-Caucasus ferry service, and all the necessary documents have been signed," he said. | | Full Story |
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| Yerevan, March 13. /Arka/. The Iran-Armenia gas main is to be opened late in March, RA Deputy Foreign Minister Gegham Gharibjanyan told ARKA.
"The official ceremony is scheduled for the end of March," Gharibjanyan said.
The gas main was to be commissioned last December, but the process was later postponed until this spring. | | Full Story |
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 Mar. 6, 2007 /PanARMENIAN.Net/ Co-Chairs of inter-governmental commission on economic cooperation between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Armenia Russian Minister of Transport Igor Levitin and RA Minister of Defense Serzh Sargsyan had a meeting in Moscow, the Russian Ministry of Transport Press Office reports. At the meeting the two sides discussed realization issues of the protocol from 8th session of inter-governmental commission, situation in the development of contract-legal |
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