The World Bank expects the Armenian economy to grow about 4 percent in 2017 with a modest but sustained recovery envisaged over the medium term. After stagnating in 2016, the economy showed renewed and greater-than-expected strength in the first half of 2017, which has continued into the third quarter but at a moderated pace. Higher gross domestic product (GDP), along with improvements in tax administration, have contributed to an improvement in tax collection, which has permitted some loosening of the earlier compression of capital expenditures. Having exceeded the fiscal rule's lower debt-to-GDP threshold (50 percent), the deficit has been constrained to below 3 percent of GDP this year. This issue of the Armenia country economic update includes a special section on population, migration, and growth. It highlights the extent to which net out migration has driven Armenia's population dynamics, how it may affect longer term growth, and the types of policies that can stem the outflow of Armenia's best and brightest young people.