Friday, April 10 2015 20:35
Ex-President of the Armenian Central Bank Comparing the Country's Current Economic System with a Vacuum-Cleaner and Agreeing with International Donors' Estimations
ArmInfo. Ex-president of the Armenian Central Bank Bagrat Asatryan has compared the country's current economic system with a vacuum-cleaner mechanism. During a press conference he told the journalists about the primitive structure of the Armenian economy, which is mainly based on the international, transfers that support the internal consumer demands. The money ends up back abroad via monopolist-importers. That happens to finance the import once again. According to Asatryan, "the monopolist-oligarchs sit the in parliament and decide how much of that money is to be left in the state budget - meaning to pay the taxes - how much to keep and how much to invest in their external assets". He believes that under such a primitive system Armenia's EEU membership benefits are out of question.
He said that Armenia's two main export products - ore mining raw materials and agricultural processed production significantly depend on the situation on foreign markets. Ore mining raw materials income has significantly decreased because of fall in metal prices all over the world. Industrial-agricultural producers, who export to Russia, have made terrible losses because of the RUR devaluation. The economist believes international organizations' forecasts on the economic stagnation and even recession in Armenian quite possible and grounded. Asatryan also believes Armenia's accession to the EEU to be more political, rather than economic. "It is the same if one were forced to wed still asking to keep dating his paramour. There is no "both-and" formula. In clear customs policy there is only the "either-or" policy. We can surely say that nowadays Armenia does not interest anyone from the economic point of view, this is evidenced by the decreasing number in international investments", said Asatryan.
To remind, international financial bodies keep damping their forecasts on Armenia's economic development in 2015: EDB forecasts only 1.6% growth of the Armenian GDP, while EBRD and IMF - 0%, the ADP also forecasts 1.6% growth only.
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