YEREVAN, JUNE 26, ARMENPRESS. Armenia’s membership to the Eurasian Economic Union gave positive results, finance minister Vardan Aramyan said during the joint session of parliamentary committees on the 2016 state budget execution.

“For instance, in 2016 exports from Armenia to Russia grew by nearly 50%. Meaning, when the Russian economy got regulated, and our businessmen adapted to the new rules, we had immediate growth. From this perspective I can say that we had positive effects from the membership to the Eurasian Economic Union”, Aramyan said.

The minister also drew attention on the structure of Armenian exports. Aramyan underscored that Armenia mostly exports raw materials to the EU. “92 % of our exports to the European Union comprise raw materials, the remaining are finished goods. Whereas to Eurasian Economic Union member states, namely Russia, we mostly export finished goods”, he said.

The minister mentioned that prior to Armenia’s membership to the EEU, the government had made calculations as to what benefits it would have from it. According to him, analysis showed that by joining the EEU the addition economic effect would be 3,2%.

“Of course, the 2015 economic crisis didn’t allow for us to achieve this effect which we expected. However, even in this case, if we didn’t have joined the EEU, we would have had much worse problems in 2015 and much slower economic growth”, he said.