Finance Minister Remarks

In an interview with Sputnik Armenia on March 16, Vahe Hovhannisyan, the Minister of Finance of Armenia, said that about half of Armenia's economic growth of 12.6% in 2022 is due to the impact of human and financial influx caused by the consequences of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict [Russia-Ukraine war.] 

"The current situation has created favorable conditions for our economic growth due to both the influx of people and financial resources and additional opportunities for our business entities. In all these areas, we have made quite a lot of progress. If we talk about how strongly this factor affects our economic growth, then, in our opinion, it will be about 6%. That is, without this factor, we would have had an economic growth of about 7%," Hovhannisyan noted.

The minister also presented official statistics, according to which, in 2022, 790,000 people arrived from the Russian Federation to Armenia, while in 2021, this figure was 351,000 (2.3 times less). Money transfers to Armenia in 2022 amounted to $5.2 billion compared to $2.1 billion a year earlier. At the same time, $3.6 billion was transferred to Armenia from Russia last year.

Economy Minister Remarks

In an interview with Vedomosti on March 16, Minister of Economy of Armenia Vahan Kerobyan said that Western sanctions against Russia have resulted in an increase in the supply of goods from Armenia to the Russian market and other countries of the Eurasian Economic Union. At the same time, Yerevan and Moscow completely stopped mutual settlements in dollars and euros.

According to him, the choice of currency for payment has become a big problem for trading partners in the current conditions. "The fact is that the Russian ruble is currently too volatile against the dollar and the euro to conclude long-term contracts, so the Armenian dram looks preferable. At the same time, the potential of the Armenian currency for use in bilateral trade is limited," the Minister noted.