Foreign Trade Skyrockets!

If you expect than imports are responsible for this bulletin, then you are correct!

Armenia's foreign trade surged 44.4 percent to $876.4m in January-March 2007. Exports stood at $231.2m (up 25.1 percent) and imports amounted to $645.2m (up 52.9 percent.

Armenia has now become a rapid consumer of foreign goods. That's great, but can't we have the production edge in any industry?

If you recall, we've covered Armenia's trade deficit on a previous occasion.

Source: RBC

Armenia's $1,000,000,000 Trade Deficit

Armenia now enjoys the same problem as the United States: trade deficit. A trade deficit is when a country imports more items than it exports, meaning more goods are brought in than they are taken out of the country to be sold elsewhere.

Armenia’s external trade deficit reached a new record-high level last year, surpassing the $1 billion mark due to flat exports and a stagnant manufacturing sector...

Official figures cited by the Regnum news agency show the country’s net imports soaring by almost 21 percent to $1.95 billion in the first eleven months of 2006. Armenian exports stood at just $895 million, 0.3 percent up from the same period in 2005.

The government has repeatedly blamed the negative manufacturing trend on a continuing downturn in the global trade in refined diamonds, one of Armenia’s main export items.

The Armenian Central Bank says the dram has been bolstered by a similarly steep rise in cash remittances sent home by hundreds of thousands of Armenians working abroad.

Blame whomever you want: I blame the lack of a diversified economy. What we need is a good manufacturing sector!

Source: ArmeniaLiberty