The Asian Development Bank (ADB) forecasts that the ongoing Covid-19 crisis will slow economic growth in Armenia to 2.2% in 2020.

According to the ADB, Armenia’s growth rate in 2019 was 7.6%

The growth rate for Armenia in 2021 is expected to rise to 4.5% as reforms launched in 2019 and 2020 begin to take effect, strengthening and improving infrastructure, human resources, capital, finances and public administration.

Inflation in Armenia is expected to double in Armenia in 2020, from 1.4% in 2019 to 2.8% this year.

The data is published in the current issue of the ADB’s Asian Development Outlook, which a Special Topic: The Impact of the Coronavirus Outbreak—An Update.

The report says that economic growth in Developing Asia overall will decline sharply in 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic before recovering in 2021.

(Developing Asia refers to the 46 members of the ADB. Armenia, along with Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, make up the ADB’s Central Asia section).

For Central Asia as a whole, the ADB forecasts a 2020 growth rate of 2.8%, down from 4.9% in 2019. It is expected to rebound to 4.2% in 2021.

For Developing Asia as a whole, ADB's Asian Development Outlook 2020 forecasts growth of 2.2% in 2020, a downward revision of 3.3 percentage points relative to the 5.5% ADB had forecast in September 2019.

Economic growth in Developing Asia is expected to rebound to 6.2% in 2021 if the COVID-19 outbreak ends and activity normalizes.