B. Asatryan: “We won’t see the growth”
Armenia's National Statistical Service has registered economic growth, but former Head of Armenia's Central Bank Bagrat Asatryan believes that Armenia is still at the pre-crisis level.
According to Asatryan, on the average of the five months of last year, the fall was 15-16 percent and this year's 8.8% growth doesn't even compensate for all that.
In addition to that, "one tenth of Armenia's citizens don't live well. This is the peculiarity of Armenia's economic growth. The effects of the economic downfall were so severe that we didn't see the growth and won't see it this year as well," said the economist.
Why are Armenians still unemployed, if there is economic growth in the country? In response to that, Asatryan said there is no real calculation of unemployed citizens in Armenia. He is sure that the statistics on unemployment in Armenia are 4 times larger than the officially announced figures and brought up an example from Serzh Sargsyan's pre-election platform where the level of unemployment was 30%.
The government recently talked about the fact that it has to reduce the specific weight of construction, but it has been growing by 8.8 and 12.5 percent in the past two months.
Does this mean that construction is turning into the economy's moving force? In response, the economist noted that in countries like Armenia, construction can be decisive for economic development, but "the economy is in a humiliating situation when it comes time to evaluate the expenditures."
Bagrat Asatryan doesn't accept the viewpoint that a second wave of the crisis is expected. "Yes, the world was in a crisis which passed Armenia as well. Now European Union-member countries face problems, but I wouldn't call that a crisis. There are issues in state finances. Will this have an impact on the economy? I don't have an answer to that. In any case, the economies of European Union-member countries are growing."
