Armenia's GDP grew by a strong 7.9% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2019, the World Bank said in its monthly economic update on the country.

"This brings the cumulative GDP growth in 2019 through September to 7.5 percent yoy, driven largely by private consumption," the Bank said in a statement.

"On the production side, most of growth (5.5 pp) came from trade and services and the rest from industry (mainly manufacturing (1 pp), mining (0.6 pp) and construction (0.3 pp)). Manufacturing grew by 9 percent, while output in mining rebounded by 18 percent yoy, as the sector continued to recover from the production disruptions in 2018. Agriculture continues to contract."

Inflation in November continued to edge upwards. Consumer prices increased by 1 percent in November yoy, up from 0.9 percent annual inflation in the previous month, but still below the lower bound of the target range of the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) of 4 +/-1.5 percent, the statement said.

With imports growing strongly and exports moderating, the trade deficit widened. After growing by 33 percent yoy in September, exports in October grew by only 1.3 percent yoy. The sharp adjustment was due to slower, though at 30 percent yoy still very strong, growth of export of precious stones and metals (mostly gold).