ВНЕШНЯЯ ТОРГОВЛЯ АРМЕНИИ: МЕЖДУНАРОДНОЕ И ЕВРАЗИЙСКОЕ НАПРАВЛЕНИЯ

Abstract

The article analyzes the international and Eurasian directions of the Republic of Ar- menia’s foreign trade that is caused by the Armenia’s membership in the Eurasian Economic Union since January 1, 2015. The main indicators characterizing the coun- try’s integration into the world economy are the openness of economy, export and import quotas. The dynamics of these indicators for 2002-2022 demonstrates a rather high degree of involvement of the Armenian economy in the world economy. The main characteristics of the Armenia’s foreign trade in goods are the presence of a stable negative balance of foreign trade, which reached its maximum in 2022 (-3.4 billion USD), as well as a large share of raw materials in exports (38%). In gen- eral, the year 2022 became very important for Armenia in terms of a significant in- crease in the volume of foreign trade flows (by 169%). Among the main directions of Armenian export in 2021-2022 there were Russia, China, Switzerland, Bulgaria, the Netherlands and Iraq. The main suppliers of goods to the Armenian market in 2021- 2022 were Russia, China, Iran, Italy, and Germany. In the commodity structure of exports of the Republic of Armenia, 66% of exports in 2022 were in four commodity groups: "mineral products" (19%), "precious and semi-precious stones, precious met- als and articles thereof" (18%), "ready-made foodstuffs" (16%), and "machinery, equipment and mechanisms" (13%). The share of the EEU countries in the foreign trade of the Republic of Armenia has always been significant: at average, for the pe- riod 2002-2022 it accounted for 24% of exports and 28% of imports, the maximum values were reached in 2022: 47% of total exports and 31% of total imports. The ge- ographical composition of the foreign trade flows of the Republic of Armenia to/from the EEU countries has always been characterized by high concentration: 95-97% of these flows went from/to the Russian Federation, 3-4% – Belarus, 1-1.5% Kazakhstan, less than 1% – Kyrgyzstan.