Ex-head of central bank describes economic figures as positive
Armenia’s economic growth of about 6% this year is within the expected band and is quite positive, the ex-head of the Central Bank Bagrat Asatryan told reporters today.
He said one should not expect that six months after dramatic political changes that has brought about a kind of stress, the crackdown on corruption and monopolies will translate into high economic figures. At the same time, he said the economic policy of the new Armenian government has both omissions and positive trends.
As a negative factor, he singled out the change in the foreign trade balance with higher rates of imports that will almost double exports by yearend. As a positive factor he pointed out structural changes in the economy, including the growth of the processing industry against the background of a drop in the mining sector.
However, according to him, the new government has failed so far to present programmatic approaches that would allow the country to develop.
"The budget, for example, lacks specifics and tasks that are to be solved in the near future," said Asatryan. At the same time, he noted that, in general, expectations for 2019 will be quite positive.
Armenia’s economic activity in November 2018 grew by 3.6%, when compared with November 2017, according to the National Statistical Committee (NSC). In general, the economic activity index in the first 11 months of this year was up 5.7% as opposed to the same time span of 2017.
In November 2018, the 12-month inflation was 2.6%. Also Armenia’s foreign trade amounted to about $6.723.6 billion, an increase of 19.1% compared to the same period of 2017. The government’s projection of economic growth for this year is 4.5%. -0-