In 2021, there were recovery trends in the economies of the world and Armenia's main partner countries, Armenian Finance Minister Tigran Khachatryan said on Wednesday.

His remarks came at the National Assembly session during the discussion of the 2021 state budget performance.

According to the Minister, the economy entered the phase of recovery in 2021 after the pandemic and the war in Karabakh. Thus, the real GDP growth was 5.7%.

The economic growth, as noted by the representative of the Government, was mainly due to growth in the service sector. "Industry and construction in Armenia have also progressed, contributing to economic growth. Meanwhile, a decline in agriculture had a negative impact on economic growth," said the head of the Ministry of Finance. At the same time, consumption growth in Armenia made 3.7%. Exports increased by 16.5% and imports by 10.9%.

At the same time, during the reporting year, economic growth forecasts were revised several times. In fact, growth of 5.7% was registered.

"There was a high inflationary background throughout the year. The average inflation rate was 7.2%. This is a factor also observed in the current year. Nevertheless, inflation was noticeable all over the world last year as well as this year," Khachatryan noted.

In addition, there were positive shifts in the labor market compared to 2020. In particular, there was an increase in average wages in both the public and private sectors. The average wage in 2021 rose by 7.6% compared to 2020. Meanwhile, the state budget deficit relative to GDP was 4.6 percent, down 0.8 percentage points from a year earlier. "The state debt relative to GDP was 60.3%, which is 3.2% less than in 2020," the minister said.

Total tax revenues in Armenia amounted to 1 trillion 690 billion drams, while expenditures amounted to 2 trillion 49 billion AMD. Thus, the deficiency was fixed at AMD 359.1bln. The realization of expenditures was 97.8%. "According to the adjusted plan, the government worked out a program to finance the deficit in the range of 359 billion AMD. In fact, only 320 billion AMD were financed out of the raised funds," Tigran Khachatryan explained.

Thus, the national debt at the end of 2021 was 4 trillion 430 billion AMD, which is equivalent to 9 billion 226 million USD. Most of it is the debt of the government and AMD 220bln is the debt of the Central Bank. The debt of the government by the end of the year was 4 trillion 210 billion AMD. Of which the external debt - 2 trillion 972 billion AMD, and the internal debt - 1 trillion 237 billion AMD.