ArmInfo. Mineral raw materials dominate Armenia's exports, accounting for 28%, while machinery and equipment account for 27% of imports. The former has seen a sharp acceleration in growth, reaching significant rates, while the latter has emerged from stagnation to high double-digit growth. This is evidenced by data from the RA Statistics Committee for January-September 2026.
Machinery and equipment, finished food products, and precious metals/stones occupy the second, third, and fourth positions in exports, while land/air/water transport, mineral raw materials, and finished food products occupy the second, third, and fourth positions in imports. Fifth place in exports went to base metals and stones, while fifth place went to chemical products in imports.
In total, the top five items accounted for 82.4% of exports ($4.3 billion) and 63.7% of imports ($6.2 billion). Moreover, precious metals and stones continue to decline significantly in both exports and imports, having lost their leading position in imports last year to machinery and equipment, subsequently dropping out of the top five, and now yielding their lead in exports to mineral raw materials, barely holding on to the top five. It is noteworthy that base metals and stones, among the top five export items, increased their annual dynamics from a 9.9% decline to 6.9% growth, while land/air/water transport vehicles and chemical products, which occupied the 2nd and 5th positions in imports, significantly accelerated their annual growth – the former with a double-digit acceleration from 15.9% to 49.5%, and the latter from a moderate 7.6% to a double-digit 26%.
Thus, during the reporting period (January-September 2026), mineral raw materials worth more than $1.4 billion, machinery and mechanisms worth $941.96 million (18.2% of the total), finished food products worth $850.2 million (16.5%), and precious metals/stones worth $794.3 million were exported. (15.4%), and base metals/stones worth $240.1 million (4.7%). Machinery and mechanisms worth more than $2.6 billion were imported, along with land/air/water transport worth $1.123 billion (11.5% of the total), mineral raw materials worth $1.120 billion (11.4%), finished food products worth $751.4 million (7.7%), and chemical products worth $641.1 million (6.5%).
Let's look at the annual dynamics of these goods in exports and imports. In particular, mineral raw material exports accelerated sharply to a substantial 69.6%, while import growth accelerated to 31.9%. Finished food products continued to accelerate in import growth to 22.8%, while exports reversed their double-digit growth to a 3.2% decline. Machinery and equipment reversed stagnation in imports to 35.7% growth, while exports reversed their modest growth to a 0.8% decline. Precious metals and stones continued to decline significantly in both exports and imports, ranging from 53.2% to 65.6%, albeit at a slower pace. As for imports of land/air/water transport, their volume increased by 49.5% year-on-year, with an accelerating pace, while their significantly smaller export volume recovered from a significant decline to double-digit growth of 12.9%. Base metals/stones in exports recovered from the decline to 6.9% growth, while growth in imports slowed to 4.3%. Chemical products in imports accelerated to double-digit growth of 26%, while in exports, the dynamics reversed from double-digit growth to a 0.6% decline.
According to statistics, total exports in January-September 2026 reached $5.16 billion, while imports reached $9.79 billion. Moreover, exports remained in decline, but with a sharp slowdown in annual growth from 46.8% to 8%, while imports recovered from a 33.4% decline to 9.5% growth.
By country, exports and imports to the EAEU decreased by 10.7-22.4% (due to a decline of 11.3-25.2% to the Russian Federation), while significantly increasing to the EU by 51.2-48.4%. Moreover, exports to most EU countries increased significantly, and imports to some also increased. Exports and imports to the United Kingdom, Korea, and Georgia also grew during the reporting period, while imports continued to grow to the United States, Japan, and Switzerland, while exports to Brazil jumped significantly. Exports to Canada continued to grow at double-digit rates, but imports began to decline. Among CIS countries, exports and imports increased significantly to Ukraine and Turkmenistan, while exports to Uzbekistan jumped significantly and imports maintained double-digit growth. Among EAEU countries, Kyrgyzstan significantly increased both exports and imports, while Kazakhstan and Belarus significantly increased imports alone. To China, exports improved, with imports returning from a recession to significant growth, while imports maintained double-digit growth. The opposite was observed with the United States, where imports reversed their decline to strong double-digit growth, while the decline in exports accelerated.
Russia and China occupy the top two positions in both exports and imports. The UAE, Iraq, and Bulgaria are next in the top five for exports, while Iran, Germany, and the United States are the top five for imports.
