YEREVAN, February 3. /ARKA/. The strengthening of the Armenian dram has actually had less impact on the financial indicators of business entities this time than it did in the 2000s, Armenian Economy Minister Vahan Kerobyan said.

"In our opinion one of the key differences is that the government is in every way supporting the modernization of production by business entities," he told Armenpress.

Kerobyan said that the IT sector still needs support, but in other sectors manufacturers import products in one way or another and took advantage of the revaluation of the dram to purchase raw materials and components at lower prices.

"Last year there was also high inflation in Armenia and the world, which allowed producers to adjust prices due to the new situations. As a result, when we start looking at the financial performance of producers more closely, we see that the appreciation of the dram did not have much of a negative effect," he said.

According to Bloomberg estimates, the Armenian dram appreciated by more than 22% against the U.S. dollar in 2022, largely due to the inflow of mostly Russian nationals. According to the Border Service of Armenia, as of December 2022 about 110 thousand Russian nationals, of which 50 thousand with Armenian surnames, arrived in Armenia.-0-