ArmInfo.In Armenia, the industrial producer price index (PPI) rose to 109.2% in January–March 2026, compared to 102.1% during the same period in 2025.
This increase occurred against a backdrop of significant recovery in the industrial sector's annual dynamics, which shifted from an 18.5% decline to 13.4% growth, reaching a total volume of 748 billion drams ($1.98 billion), as evidenced by preliminary data from the Statistical Committee of the Republic of Armenia. According to the statistics, the industrial PPI also saw a year-over-year increase in March 2026, rising to 109.5% from 101.9% in March 2025. During this period, industrial performance also trended upward, moving from a 16.9% contraction to 7% growth.
Notably, the consumer market in Armenia also experienced inflation during these periods. Specifically, inflation reached 4.2% in January–March 2026 compared to the same period in 2025, and 4.5% in March 2026 year-over-year—up from 2.5% and 3.3% respectively in the previous year. Consumer inflation was primarily driven by rising food prices, which increased by 7% in January–March 2026 and 7.8% in March 2026 compared to the corresponding periods in 2025. This follows a similar upward trend from the previous year, when food price growth stood at 4.1% and 5.4%. Concurrently, the cost of services continues to rise, showing an increase of 2.8% in the first quarter of 2026 and 2.6% in March 2026, maintaining a steady pace compared to the previous year's rates of 2.7% and 2.9%.
It is worth noting that this is accompanied by an acceleration in economic activity growth in Armenia in January-March 2026 from 4.1% to 7.1% per annum, and in March 2026 to March 2025 - from 3.7% to 6.6%. At the same time, an improvement in the annual dynamics of foreign trade turnover in January- March 2026 is observed from a 54.2% decline to 4.6% growth, as a result of the dynamics of both exports and imports, which went from a 61.8-47.9% decline to 4.5-4.6% growth. Compared to March 2025, the volume of foreign trade slowed down by 6.8% in March 2026, due to a decrease in exports by 12.6% and imports by 3.2%. This slowdown was less severe than the previous year, when in March 2025, compared to March 2024, foreign trade turnover fell by 31.8% due to a reduction in exports by 65.4% and imports by 51.2%. (The average exchange rate of the dram in Q1 2026 was AMD 378.30 / $ 1, compared to AMD 395.42 / $ 1 in Q1 2025).
