10:45,
YEREVAN, MAY 16, ARMENPRESS. Wildberries launched a logistics center in Armenia that enables local businesses to carry out direct sales online.
“Initially, the “Marketplace” sale model is available for Armenian businesses only inside the country, but the geography could expand in the future to other countries, including in Russia,” the company said in a statement.
Wildberries entered the Armenian market in 2018.
10:51,
YEREVAN, MAY 16, ARMENPRESS. Armenia is among the top destinations for Russians this summer, TASS reported citing a survey conducted by OneTwoTrip covering all foreign flights tickets for 2022 June-August.
Armenia is the top destination with 18,7% of bookings, followed by Turkey (16%), Kyrgyzstan (14,5%), Kazakhstan (3,8%) and Greece (3,4%). Israel, Italy and Georgia are also among the destinations preferred by Russian tourists.
10:58,
YEREVAN, MAY 16, ARMENPRESS. 1,001,443 full vaccinations against COVID-19 were carried out in Armenia so far, the Ministry of Healthcare reported.
Another 130,074 first-dose vaccinations and 51,361 booster shots were administered.
11:05,
YEREVAN, MAY 16, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan arrived in Russia on a working visit on May 16, his office said.
The Prime Minister will participate in the summit of the leaders of the member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in Moscow.
11:07,
YEREVAN, MAY 16, ARMENPRESS. The recent flow of international visits to Armenia has contributed to the increase in demand. However, these flows also had an inflationary effect from the perspective of the increase in demand, devaluation of the dram has been observed, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Armenia Hovhannes Khachatryan said during the session of the parliamentary standing committee on financial-credit and budgetary affairs.
Speaking about the expectations in 2022, he said: “In the beginning of the year we were forecasting 6.5% inflation and 1.5% economic growth”. He said that the CBA doesn’t have updated forecasts, the last ones were made in March.
“The main reason, which is both inflationary and contributes to some extent to the economic growth, is the external environment. We have a significant growth in external demand. International visitors have created both demand and increased the inflationary pressures. The inflationary pressures increase also under the growth in uncertainties due to the drastic increase in risk premiers and the increase in international prices which happened because of the drastic disruption of international value chains”, he said.
He said that the CBA still keeps the uncertainties in the forecasts, depending on how long the effects of demand and capital inflow by non-residents will last.
As for the international prices, Hovhannes Khachatryan said they have less doubts that the prices of food and energy prices will be at a high level. The CBA made its last forecast in the period of the maintenance of the geopolitical pressure.
11:15,
YEREVAN, MAY 16, ARMENPRESS. The medical staff of the Italian A.S. Roma will try to speed up midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s recovery process for the Armenian football star to be fit for the May 25, 2022 UEFA Europa Conference League Final where the Wolves will face Feyenoord, Italian news media reported.
Mkhitaryan’s thigh injury prompted him to miss 4 matches.
11:22,
YEREVAN, MAY 16, ARMENPRESS. Armenia’s trade with Russia will “most probably” drop due to the impact of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the Vice Governor of the Central Bank of Armenia Hovhannes Khachatryan said.
“We have 2,5 billion dollars of international trade with Russia, where around 800 million is exports and 1,7 billion is imports,” Khachatryan said at the parliamentary committee on financial-credit and budgetary affairs where he was presenting the Central Bank’s annual report.
“The existing information gathered in the dynamic developments of the past one and a half months is not enough to make far-reaching assumptions, but most probably trade will drop,” Khachatryan said, adding that the cenbank hasn’t yet issued a final assessment on which direction the trade change will occur.
He added that Armenia has small volumes of trade with Ukraine – 160 million dollars, from which 120 million is imports. “If this hasn’t dropped to zero [yet], then it is near to zero,” he said, adding that these volumes will somehow be recouped in other ways.
Speaking on projections on the Russian economy, the Vice Governor said: “The projections on the Russian economy are naturally negative, we’ve projected 8%. But we’d made this projection in very big and unclear developments, now very different projections are being voiced, such as 10-15%, 6-7%.”
Russia has experienced nearly 15% inflation due to the uncertainties and devaluation of the Russian currency. Changes are expected given the recent stabilization of situation and the changes of the Ruble currency rates.
11:27,
YEREVAN, MAY 16, ARMENPRESS. Prosecutor General of Armenia Artur Davtyan departed for Egypt on a four-day working visit, his office said.
Artur Davtyan is scheduled to have a number of meetings, particularly with the Prosecutor General and the Chairman of the Administrative Control Authority of Egypt.
A memorandum of understanding will be signed between the Offices of the Prosecutors General of Armenia and Egypt based on the results of the meeting of the Prosecutors General.
The Armenian Prosecutor General received the invitation to visit Egypt by his Egyptian counterpart back in December 2021 during the 9th session of the Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) in Sharm El-Sheikh.
11:49,
YEREVAN, MAY 16, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Vahagn Khachaturyan sent a congratulatory letter to President of Poland Andrzej Duda on the 50th birthday, the Armenian President’s office said.
“Armenia attaches importance to the constant strengthening of the friendly relations and constructive dialogue with Poland both in bilateral format and within the frames of the European Union”, the President said in the letter. “I am convinced that all preconditions exist for raising the mutual partnership of our countries to a qualitatively new level with joint efforts”.
Lebanon’s new parliament to have 6 ethnic Armenian members according to preliminary results
11:57,
YEREVAN, MAY 16, ARMENPRESS. The preliminary results of the parliamentary elections held in Lebanon on May 15 have been announced. Editor-in-chief of the Lebanon-based Azdag daily Shahan Gantaharyan told Armenpress that there will be 6 ethnic Armenian MPs in the parliament of Lebanon.
“3 of the ethnic Armenians elected to the parliament are the candidates of the ARF – Hagop Pakradouni, Hagop Terzian and George Bouchikian. They were elected by the lists of the electoral bloc formed with different political forces of Lebanon. Jihat Pakradouni was elected by the list of the Lebanese Forces party. Jean Talouzian will take the seat reserved for the Armenian Catholic community, Paula Yacoubian was elected by the list of the public movement. I want to repeat that these are very preliminary results, as the official results are not published yet”, Shahan Gantaharyan said.