The paper has interviewed Bagrat Asatryan,a former president of the Central Bank of Armenia[br]
Mr Asatryan, Armenia economic growth is 6.6% as of the first quarter of 2017. How do you evaluate the situation given that we didn’t record such a tall result in the past years? And did the Government’s activity contribute to that?[br]There are certain expectations, or particularly after 2016 which was fairly an unsuccessful year. With the economic growth being 6.6%,industrial growth – 16%, the growth in trade - 11.3% and in industries – 10%, or we arent likely to see a serious effect on our economy. It may be tangible for a certain segments of the society,but the negative phenomena will persist under conditions of the deepening poverty. The government, which has always been the last to react in such cases, and also sees this and has issued its negative opinion,evaluating the situation as far from positive.
I don’t want to give any evaluation now; we will speak approximately the government’s work at the cessation of this year, but there are two factors underlying this growth: the increased prices for mining resources, or ( the international copper prices which surged by 15% against last year,which is a significant figure), and the private transfers which have grown by approximately 14.%. They too, or could have contributed to the growth in trade and overturn,as well as in services. But the growth in transfers does not promise to be sustainable.
Source: tert.am