Armenia's information-communication-technology (ICT) exports climbed to US $1.1 billion in 2023, a 43 percent year-on-year surge that places the small Caucasus republic among the world's ten fastest-growing tech exporters. This paper asks how Armenia's digital capacities can be operationalised...

Armenia, strategically positioned at the geopolitical crossroads of East and West, is actively pursuing a transformative agenda to establish itself as a "Digital Bridge Gate." This article examines Armenia's digital infrastructure and burgeoning innovation capabilities, analyzing their potential...

This Country Economic Update (CEU) is the first in a regular series of reports dedicated to monitoring socioeconomic developments and to fostering informed dialogue on economic policies and prospects. Armenia CEUs aim to offer regular, comprehensive, and concise analysis of recent economic...

The growing geopolitical tensions and regional instabilities in Eurasia raise urgent questions about the resilience of trade routes and infrastructure connectivity. This paper applies a graphbased approach to model the EU-Asia trade network and explores Armenia's potential as a transit hub...

In an era of global systemic transformations, small states encounter heightened challenges in safeguarding their sovereignty and maintaining strategic relevance. This article examines Armenia's foreign policy as a representative case of small state behavior in a contested geopolitical...

This article examines the impact of government spending, as well as current and capital expenditures, on economic growth. Current and capital expenditures have distinct roles in shaping a countries' economic trajectory. For one hand, current expenditures are essential for maintaining short-term...

Foreign trade plays a central role in Armenia's economic development, shaping GDP through both internal and external factors. In small and open economies such as Armenia, external trade and integration strategies are decisive for growth. The state budget data for 2022-2024 underline this...

This report describes the bioeconomy policy developments in Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kosovo*, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Moldova, Serbia, Türkiye and Ukraine, associated to the Horizon Europe Framework Programme. The work extends the geographic coverage of the...

This report presents estimates of the Personal Income Tax (PIT) and Social Security Contributions tax gaps for Armenia for 2020-2023. The tax gaps are based on a bottom-up approach using operational audits. The PIT gap is estimated at 3.8 percent of potential PIT liability

Armenia's economic outlook is broadly favorable. Real GDP growth remains strong, gradually decelerating from its previous highs as temporary external drivers have continued to dissipate. Inflation has picked up in recent months but remains moderate, around the CBA's target. The current account...

From Tbilisi to Yerevan, adversarial narratives are gaining ground in the digital sphere, increasingly targeting the European Union. While the EU maintains a solid digital footprint in Georgia and Armenia, an innovative approach to digital diplomacy, based on AI-enhanced social listening, can...

From Tbilisi to Yerevan, adversarial narratives are gaining ground in the digital sphere, increasingly targeting the European Union. While the EU maintains a solid digital footprint in Georgia and Armenia, an innovative approach to digital diplomacy, based on AI-enhanced social listening, can...

This paper evaluates the transition from X12-ARIMA to X13-ARIMA-SEATS for the seasonal adjustment of Armenia's quarterly national accounts (QNA). We analyze the methodological advancements and their impact on key economic indicators, focusing on the precision and reliability of seasonally...

This report presents results on a review of data available to the State Revenue Committee for estimating the Personal Income Tax and Social Security Contribution gaps. It is concluded that SRC has sufficient quality data available from operational audits to assess the gaps

The three South Caucasus economies - Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia - have performed relatively well since the COVID-19 pandemic, benefiting from certain spillovers of Russia's war against Ukraine. The oil importers Armenia and Georgia achieved double-digit GDP growth in 2022 - 12.6% and 11.0%,...

The lack of a workable and accurate national sampling frame is one of the methodological constraints in conducting representative national surveys. It undermines policy and research efforts in many developing countries, particularly those experiencing significant internal displacement and...

Armenia, a landlocked country in the South Caucasus with a population of three million, has registered important achievements over the past two decades. Between 2000-2023, Armenia achieved robust economic growth averaging 6.3 percent, above the average for Europe and Central Asia (excluding...

Armenia has made important advances in promoting gender equality in recent years. Yet the country stands to benefit from the narrowing of persistent gaps in human endowment, economic opportunity, and voice and agency. This assessment offers new insights on what remains to be accomplished to...

The study provides an overview of levels of institutional and fiscal decentralisation, and of the legal bases for the various governance structures in Armenia and Azerbaijan. The distribution of competencies at each level of governance is presented in the following policy areas of mandatory...

Economic activity remains strong but moderating as transitory trade, remittances, and capital flows peter out. The outlook is positive, with growth expected to reach 6.0 percent in 2024 and to converge gradually to its long-term rate. Inflation has picked up very slowly and is expected to remain...

This report presents estimates of predictions of the Corporate Income Tax (CIT) gap for Armenia for 2023. The predicted CIT Gap is based on not-yet audited tax returns. The CIT gap is predicted to be 25.5 to 34.1 percent of potential CIT liability in 2023

This report presents estimates of the Corporate Income Tax (CIT) gap for Armenia for the period 2020-2022. The CIT gap is based on a bottom-up approach using operational audits. The average CIT gap in Armenia is estimated at 26.4-35.2 percent of potential CIT liability

Armenia has committed to the adoption of the OECD's Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework. To give effect it will need to enact legislation. An eight-step roadmap for implementation was developed. It sets out each activity, assigns responsibilities and sets timelines

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has accelerated global dynamics that profoundly impact the post-Soviet South. Relations with Russia are still strong, but the former subalterns are raising their voices. The empowerment is most visible in their foreign relations, but also tends to strengthen...

The dynamics of Austria's economic relations with the EU Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries - Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine - and with Russia have deviated from those of the EU in several important ways. During the decade preceding the war in Ukraine, Austrian trade...

Fiscal policies affect households and individuals in a variety of ways. Even though these effects are likely to be different for men and women, conventional tools of fiscal incidence analysis are typically unable to capture these gender differences. Using a particular type of incidence analysis...

The Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD) provides an assessment of the constraints Armenia should address and the opportunities it can embrace to accelerate progress toward the twin goals of ending extreme poverty and promoting shared prosperity. The first-generation SCD in Armenia, published in...

The EU and Armenia are laying out their vision for a new, ambitious Partnership Agenda. To underpin this partnership, the EU is proposing a €270 million Resilience and Growth Plan for Armenia for 2024-2027.

Over the past decades the Republic of Armenia has implemented significant reforms to reduce the state footprint in their economy and to improve the performance of the State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) where the Government intends to retain ownership. The Government has taken concrete steps focusing...

This report analyzes current public investment practices in Armenia and identifies key reform areas. Building on the 2018 Public Investment Management Assessment (PIMA), it provides an overview of the Public Investment Management process and challenges to be tackled, including bottlenecks and...

The Armenian economy continues to perform strongly, and the outlook is broadly positive. Growth is decelerating gradually to more sustainable levels, as foreign exchange and migrant inflows peter out. Inflation has rapidly declined due to low imported food and energy inflation, Dram...

The Armenia public sector accountability survey is instrumental in addressing the disparities between de jure laws and regulations and de facto practices and seeks to fill existing knowledge gaps and inform further definition and implementation of the government's anticorruption initiatives. The...

Often-overlooked developments in Armenia show how Western policy makers are failing to recognize and counteract the growing sophistication of Russia's propaganda machine. There is much the West can do. Intelligence authorities can start sharing more information about Russia's influence...

Waste management is a challenging sector to govern. The sector involves the day-to-day delivery of services that are vital to protecting public health and the environment. Regular and reliable waste management services underpin quality of life in communities, and contributes to Armenia's...

This report analyzes the digital technology adoption of Armenian firms based on the findings of the Armenia ICT Survey administered to over 1,900 firms in 2023 by the Statistical Committee of the Republic of Armenia (ARMSTAT), with the technical assistance of the World Bank and support of the...

Armenia has made significant progress in its development journey by improving its ability towithstand shocks and becoming an upper-middle-income country in 2018. Armenia's GDP per capita more than doubled between 2017 and 2023, to USD 8,053 (current prices) despite several shocks including the...

The report is based on the WBG's technical assistance which aimed to 1) provide a baseline of current PHC performance, understand the strengths and weaknesses of the PHC system, and where to target initiatives for improvement; 2) identify and understand variation in PHC performance, especially...

This paper uses two empirical tools to quantify the impact of tariff changes on bilateral trade and welfare. Both tools are rooted in structural gravity literature. The first tool estimates the impact of tariff changes on bilateral trade for 5,020 products in a partial equilibrium framework....

Waste management is a challenging sector to govern. The sector involves the day-to-day delivery of services that are vital to protecting public health and the environment. Regular and reliable waste management services underpin quality of life in municipalities, and contributes to Armenia's...

In this paper, we use survey data from the South Caucasus countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia) to document the presence of gender gaps in the labor market and examine its consequences. To do the analysis, we use a numerical general-equilibrium occupational choice model with heterogeneous...

The research aimed to identify and evaluate the risks associated with IT projects, particularly focusing on their impacts. Despite numerous efforts, a significant number of software projects still fail to achieve success; however, these risks can be effectively managed. This study outlines...

Konnektivität, besonders im Transportbereich, ist mit Blick auf den Südkaukasus während der letzten Jahre zu einem allgegenwärtigen Thema avanciert. Auch in der EU-Politik vis-à-vis der Region spielt Transportkonnektivität eine zentrale Rolle. Im Rahmen ihrer Global-Gateway-Initiative hat...

Connectivity, especially in the transport sector, has become a ubiquitous issue in the South Caucasus in recent years. Transport connectivity also plays a central role in the European Union's policy towards the region. As part of its Global Gateway Initiative, the EU has made a commitment that...