YEREVAN, APRIL 23, NOYAN TAPAN. By data published by National Statistical Service of Armenia, Armenia's GDP grew by 5.5% in the first quarter of this year, which means that the economy has entered a recovery stage, Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan said during the April 22 session of the Armenian government. In his words, this economic index is first of all related to 10% growth in industry. Besides, there was a 10% growth in electricity production and a 3.2% growth in agriculture. Nevertheless, the decline in construction sector still continues as private investments are not made yet in the construction. Before 2008, about 75% of construction work was financed at the expense of the private sector. As regards the anti-crisis measures of the government, T. Sargsyan underlined that there is some misunderstanding - people often think that the government financed the construction sector. In reality, according to him, the cash flows were not directed to construction but were used to encourage commercial banks to finance incompleted construction. The prime minister aslo said that in the first quarter retail trade increased by 1%, services - by 6%. Exports and imports grew by 60% and 23% respectively. He conditioned that by an increase in exports of mining industry production and by improved global economic indices. The monitoring conducted by the Ministry of Finance showed that the growth made 40% in gem and jewellery sector, 3% in IT industry, 21% in mining industry, 50% in production of building materials, most of which were exported. Almost 2.5fold growth was recorded in chemical industry. T. Sargsyan said that machine-tool construction volumes tripled, equipment production grew by 15%. There is still a decline in light industry and electrical engineering.

---