Interfax, Russia
Jan 30 2009

Armenian economy grows 6.8% in 2008, below target

YEREVAN Jan 30

some way below the 10% projected by the budget, the National
Statistics Service said.

GDP was 3.65 trillion dram ($12 billion).

Growth was 13.8% to 732 billion dram in the services sector, 4.4% to
1.06 billion dram in retail and 1.7% to 842.4 billion dram in the
construction sector.

Power generation rose 3.7% to 6.114 billion kilowatt-hour, industrial
output grew 2% to 751.3 billion dram and gross agricultural output was
up 1.3% to 637.3 billion dram.

The average monthly nominal wage rose 17.4% to 91,331 dram ($298).

Foreign trade grew 24% to 1.676 trillion dram ($5.481 billion).

Exports fell 7.2% to 326.9 billion dram ($1.069 billion and imports
rose, by 35% to 1.349 trillion dram ($4.412 billion).

The Central Bank’s official exchange rate averaged at 305.97 dram/ $1.