“The World Bank (WB), based on today’s figures, provide a very mild assessments; it does not want to start the year with pessimistic estimates, the real situation is much worse,” said economist Vahagn Khachatryan, in the conversation with Aravot.am, commenting on the part in the World Bank’s “Global Economic Prospects” report related to Armenia. World Bank, in its annual report, predicted that dramatically decrease of economic growth in Russia in 2014-2016 might considerably hinder the progress of a number of CIS countries depending on this country, including Armenia. According to the report, Armenia, Kirgizstan, Moldova, Belarus, and Uzbekistan will have problems with money transfers, imports, and foreign investment.
Mr. Khachatryan noting that in the last 4 years, the main incentive of Armenia’s economic development has been private transfers from Russia reminded the 2009 crisis, when the influx of money to our country was significantly reduced due to Russia’s economic condition, which left its negative effects on the country’s economy. The economist believes that Russia’s day-by-day worsening economic situation can have the same significant impact on the economy of Armenia. “If we take, for example, the Russian railway that has frozen almost all projects within the country, has suspended, turned to zero, and here it had such a program and recently there was a statement made with regard to it. The matter is about construction of Vanadzor-Fioletovo railway, which, according to estimates, would have a big impact on Armenia’s economy, in the sense that both the costs and time would be reduced, and so on; these investments would not happen.”
The fact that Russia’s economy is “stagnated, and the situation is getting worse,” as said by Mr. Khachatryan, last week, the very representatives of RF state agencies stated it in its annual conference on Russia’s economy, which, in the opinion of the economist “presented much more pessimistic scenarios than the international organizations.” “Russian officials, at the ministerial level, Minister of Economy, President of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, they presented much more pessimistic assessments, they clearly understand that Russia’s economic prospect is no longer possible with this management system. And under these conditions, it will have a very negative impact on the economy of Armenia.
And, thus, we try to further integrate into Russian economy, the Customs Union.” Describing Armenia’s economic situation, Vahagn Khachatryan said, “In fact, Armenia’s economic situation is such that we have already reached the bottom. I do not see resources to take our economy out of this situation but one, which means that the whole system should be changed. The year will be summarized and we will see how low the level of foreign and generally domestic investments have become. And it is the best measure by which one can assess the country’s economic situation and the prospects.”
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Lusine BUDAGHYAN
