YEREVAN, AUGUST 30, NOYAN TAPAN. Armenia's foreign trade deficit made 838 million dollars in the first half of 2007 against 511 million dollars in the same period of 2006. The ratio of foreign trade deficit to GDP made 31.7%, which shows that the country's economy is developing abnormally. Economist Eduard Aghajanov, former head of the National Statistical Service of the RA, stated this at the August 30 discussion. According to him, in the US, the fact that the ratio of foreign trade deficit to GDP has reached 6-7% is considered as alarming, whereas the Armenian authorities do not make the issue of reducing such a high ratio a subject of discussion. The speaker noted that many heads of the appropriate departments are unaware of economic developments in Armenia: during interviews, they present data that is considerably different from official statistics. In his words, the process of reducing the capacities of processing industry is taking place in Armenia because it has become profitable to import many traditional industrial goods instead of producing them locally.

---