Armenia is among the leaders regarding growth of EEU indices: Tatyana Valovaya
“EEU starts to overcome implications of unfavorable economic atmosphere,” Tatyana Valovaya, Member of the Board – Minister in charge of Integration and macroeconomics of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC), told reporters today, introducing important economic indices of EEU for 2016.
She firstly stated that from the very beginning they frankly stated that EEU foundation coincided with unfavorable economic stage, which was reflected in EEU indices. However, according to Valovaya, in 2015 and 2016 the analysis clearly showed if not EEU, economic indices of its member countries would be more negative.
“Moreover, we are sure that due to integration development we’d be able to much quicker overcome negative tendencies coming to a more dynamic level of economic development. We are satisfied that the results of 2016 have proven realism of our anticipations. Based on our assessments in 2016 although EEU’s GDP has considerably decreased, it has reduced by 0.1% in case, when its previous 2015 decreased by 2.3%, this is already a consoling tendency, moreover, we want to state that regarding three EEU member countries—Armenia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, we already notice GDP growth. For 2017 we anticipate GDP growth by 0.9% and such positive dynamics is anticipated for 2018-19,” Valovaya said.
She stated that in the field of trade and industry growth comprised 0.9% in 2016, and regarding several countries the index was even higher. For instance, Armenia recorded 6.7% growth, and Kyrgyzstan—4.9%. According to EEU official 4.5% growth is recorded in the field of agriculture, however, she considers it’s important to state that in 2015 growth of agricultural production by 2.6% was recorded as well.
Touching upon indices of mutual trade the speaker said external trade has the effect of a litmus paper, although integration isn’t limited by that. “In 2015-2016 our mutual trade was reducing. We informed our Prime Ministers that main reason was drop in price for energy resources, secondly, slowdown of economic growth,” Valovaya said.
According to her Armenia and Kyrgyzstan started to feel first impact of integration only in 2016. Valovaya stated it isn’t accidental that these very two countries are the leaders by some economy indices. “In case of Armenia GDP has grown by 2%, in case of Kyrgyzstan—3.8%. For this and next year we anticipate GDP growth for Armenia and Kyrgyzstan, which is higher than average indices of our country. Armenia’s index of industry has grown by 6.7%, in case of Kyrgyzstan—4.9%.
The same refers to mutual trade. Last year export of Armenia in EEU space has grown by 53%, this is a very high index, export regarding Kazakhstan has grown by 4.4%. Primary impact on Armenia is clearly observed: it’s explained also by the circumstance that Armenia joined EEU earlier, than Kyrgyzstan, the latter’s indices are also visible,” Valovaya said.
By Araks Martirosyan
