PRODUCTS MAPPING: THE CASE OF ARMENIA

Аннотация

From the point of view of the export promotion strategy, it is crucial to choose industries in which a given country has comparative advantages and the development of which can lead to export-led economic growth. In this article, the indices of Revealed Symmetrical Comparative Advantage (RSCA), Normalized Revealed Symmetric Comparative Advantage (NRCA), and the Trade Balance (TBI) were calculated based on the export data of about 100 commodity groups (chapters at 2-digit level) of Harmonized System (HS) to carry out the Products Mapping for the period 2018-2022. The market concentration index of exports and the product concentration index of exports were also calculated as well. The results show that Armenia had comparative advantages in producing some product groups, and in some, government support is required to increase the competitiveness thereof. We conclude that the majority of products that Armenia has a comparative advantage in producing thereof were mostly exported to Russia. We believe that it is necessary to diversify merchandise exports since the concentration index of export markets in 2022 was 0.427 (normalized Herfindahl-Hirschman index), and exports of products should be channeled more to middle- and upper-middle-income countries. This, in turn, would contribute to the transformation of the structure of the Armenian economy.