Foreign trade of Armenia: international and Eurasian direction

The article analyzes the international and Eurasian directions of the Republic of Armenia’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 country’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 general, the year 2022 became very important for Armenia in terms of a significant increase 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 20212022 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 metals and articles thereof 1 ' (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 period 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 geographical composition of the foreign trade flows of the Republic of Armenia to/from the EEU countries has always been characterized by high concentration: 9597% of these flows went from/to the Russian Federation, 3-4% - Belarus, 1-1.5% Kazakhstan, less than 1% - Kyrgyzstan.