Tuesday, April 7 2026 12:24
Alina Hovhannisyan

Armenia`s trade sector slows

Armenia`s trade sector slows

ArmInfo. Armenia's trade sector slowed its annual growth rate from 7.8% to 3.3% in January-February 2026, reaching AMD 892.2 billion ($2.4 billion). According to the RA  Statistics Committee, in February alone, trade turnover in Armenia  increased by 14.4% to AMD 477.5 billion ($1.3 billion).

This slowdown in the sector's annual growth was caused by a slowdown  in the dominant wholesale trade sector, which fell from 9.2% to a  stagnant 0.8%, generating AMD 566.6 billion ($1.5 billion) in  revenue.  The growth in automobile sales and purchases also slowed  less noticeably, from 9.4% to 5.8%, reaching 34.2 billion drams  ($90.3 million).

Meanwhile, annual retail growth accelerated moderately, from 4.9% to  8.1%, generating revenue of 291.4 billion drams ($769.5 million).

In the retail trade structure, the largest turnover is provided by  stores (including supermarkets) - 82.2% or 239.5 billion drams (an  annual increase of 7.5%), other retail outlets - 11.7% or 33.9  billion drams (an annual increase of 15.4%), followed by consumer  goods markets - 4% or 11.8 billion (an annual increase of 6.4%),  kiosks - 1.2% or 3.5 billion (an annual decrease of 9.9%), and  agricultural markets - 0.9% or 2.6 billion (an annual increase of  6.1%).

In the structure of Armenia's total trade turnover, wholesale trade  dominates - 63.5%, followed by retail - 32.7%, and the remaining 3.8%  is accounted for by the purchase and sale of cars.

It should be noted that the average exchange rate of the dram in  January-February 2026 was 378.76 drams/$1, and in February 2026 -  377.55 drams/$1.