Economy (Armenia)
=================


     Overview:
         Armenia under the old centrally planned Soviet system had built up textile,
         machine-building, and other industries and had become a key supplier to
         sister republics. In turn, Armenia had depended on supplies of raw materials
         and energy from the other republics. Most of these supplies enter the
         republic by rail through Azerbaijan (85%) and Georgia (15%). The economy has
         been severely hurt by ethnic strife with Azerbaijan over control of the
         Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast, a mostly Armenian-populated enclave
         within the national boundaries of Azerbaijan. In addition to outright
         warfare, the strife has included interdiction of Armenian imports on the
         Azerbaijani railroads and expensive airlifts of supplies to beleagured
         Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh. An earthquake in December 1988 destroyed
         about one-tenth of industrial capacity and housing, the repair of which has
         not been possible because the supply of funds and real resources has been
         disrupted by the reorganization and subsequent dismantling of the central
         USSR administrative apparatus. Among facilities made unserviceable by the
         earthquake are the Yerevan nuclear power plant, which had supplied 40% of
         Armenia's needs for electric power and a plant that produced one-quarter of
         the output of elevators in the former USSR. Armenia has some deposits of
         nonferrous metal ores (bauxite, copper, zinc, and molybdenum) that are
         largely unexploited. For the mid-term, Armenia's economic prospects seem
         particularly bleak because of ethnic strife and the unusually high
         dependence on outside areas, themselves in a chaotic state of
         transformation.
     GDP:
         $NA, per capita $NA; real growth rate --10% (1991)
     Inflation rate (consumer prices):
         91%
     Unemployment rate:
         NA%
     Budget:
         revenues $NA; expenditures $NA, including capital expenditures of $NA
     Exports:
         $176 million (f.o.b., 1990)
       commodities:
         machinery and transport equipment, ferrous and nonferrous metals, and
         chemicals (1991)
       partners:
         NA
     Imports:
         $1.5 billion (c.i.f., 1990)
       commodities:
         machinery, energy, consumer goods (1991)
       partners:
         NA
     External debt:
         $650 million (December 1991 est.)
     Industrial production:
         growth rate --9.6% (1991)
     Electricity:
         NA kW capacity; 10,433 million kWh produced, about 3,000 kWh per capita
         (1990)
     Industries:
         diverse, including (in percent of output of former USSR) metalcutting
         machine tools (6.7%), forging-pressing machines (4.7%), electric motors
         (8.7%), tires (2.1%), knitted wear (5.6%), hosiery (2.3%), shoes (2.2%),
         silk fabric (5.3%), washing machines (2.0%); also chemicals, trucks,
         watches, instruments, and microelectronics