The economy of Armenia is one of the fastest growing among the CIS countries, reported News Armenia, citing Leonid Vardomskiy, the head of the Center of CIS and Baltic States at the Institute of International Economic and Political Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. According to the expert, the unprecedented growth mostly stems from Armenia’s cooperation and integration with Russia. “Armenia received Russian capital, while Armenian capital is making its way into Russia. This is occurring despite the fact that the two countries do not share a common border,” said Vardomskiy, as reported by the news source.

According to official data, GDP growth in Armenia has been in the double digits over the past six years. Armenia’s economy grew by 13.4 percent in 2006. During the first quarter of 2007, the volume of investments from Russia into the Armenian economy totaled $32.7 million, of which $23.5 million were direct investments. Compared with the year earlier period, Russian investments into Armenia increased by a factor of 3.5, while direct investments rose by a factor of 15.5, detailed News Armenia.

This information was originally published July 4, 2007 (www.newsarmenia.ru).