12.6% growth, nearly $1 billion investments and reduction of public debt - Pashinyan on economic achievements in 2022

YEREVAN, April 18. /ARKA/. Armenia’s economy grew by 12.6% in 2022, the highest growth over the past 15 years, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said today while presenting the government's 2022-performance report to the National Assembly.

"According to the International Monetary Fund, Armenia growth in 2022 was the fourth highest in the world. I would like to note that GDP per capita rose from $4,679 in 2021 to $6,569 in 2022," Pashinyan said.

He noted that the strengthening of the Armenian dram’s exchange rate also played a role in the rise in GDP per capita, but it was not the only factor.

"The economic successes of 2022 encourage the acceleration of the economic reform agenda in order to consolidate the achievements and create a solid foundation for projected growth of 7% in the following years," he said.

Pashinyan said the successes came against the backdrop of relocation to Armenia of many Russian nationals and companies. According to him, more than 12,000 companies and 25,000 individual businesses were established in 2022.

"The preliminary total amount of investments made 1 trillion 688 billion drams or about 20% of GDP. Foreign direct investments have almost tripled and reached $1 billion," he said.

Pashinyan also stated that by the end of 2022 the ratio of the state debt to GDP decreased to 46.7%.

He said this allows the government to effectively manage the country’s foreign debt and create an additional margin of safety to resist potential risks.

The premier also recalled that tax revenues increased by 66.3%, reaching 1 trillion 926 billion drams.

He also announced that the number of jobs continued to grow, saying that the record number of jobs were reported in December 2022 - 704,000, while unemployment dropped by 6% to 13%. The average salary in 2022 was 235,576 drams, he added. ($1 - 387.94 drams). -0-