ARMENIAN CAR IMPORTS UP IN 2006
By Anna Saghabalian

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Oct 16 2006

The Armenian customs reported on Monday a 30 percent jump in the number
of cars imported to the country during the first nine months of this
year, presenting it as another indication of rising living standards.

Armen Avetisian, the chief of the State Customs Committee (SCC),
said almost 60 percent of the 17,000 or so imported vehicles were
second-hand European cars worth up to $5,000. "Most of the imported
cars are inexpensive and intended for the growing middle class,"
he said.

The SCC data show that local dealerships and private individuals
brought in a total of some 16,500 cars during the whole of last year.

The bulk of them were sold in Yerevan where traffic has grown much
heaver in recent years and where rush-hour traffic jams are an
increasingly serious problem.

The number of cars is continuing to rise despite a further drop in
imports of petrol and diesel fuel which the SCC said shrunk by 7,000
metric tons from January through August. Avetisian attributed this
to local motorists’ growing reliance on the much cheaper liquefied gas.

Retail sales of propane have soared during the period in question,
he said.

The customs figures also indicate growing demand in brand new and
expensive cars that are imported by Armenian companies usually
operating as official distributors of Western and Russian automakers.

According to the SCC, those companies imported more than 5,500 such
vehicles in 2006. However, the 43 dealerships registered in Armenia
claimed to brought in only a total of 552 cars.

The State Commission on Protection of Economic Competition (SCPEC)
said last August that it has launched an official inquiry into the
huge discrepancy between the reported figures. Its findings have not
been made public yet.