Time to collect electoral bribe
Babken TUNYAN | May 15, 2012
Official statistics institutions have not published information on inflation during May. That information will be published in the end of the month and will be fully available with details next month. People who were saying that there would be inflation following the elections can already say that tendencies have started. During the Easter the prices of eggs did not go up and many people said that it was because of the fact that elections were coming up and the prices would grow after May 6. Now they see that they were not mistaken. We do not mean the rumors that on the night after the election rumors said that prices of some types of products have gone up; what we mean concerns more official indicator, which is the exchange rate. As it was expected, the national currency is rapidly going down. Before the elections the market was full of foreign currency, which was exchanged to drams to take care of formal and other expenses related to elections, now the reverse process s going on. The price of dollar is rapidly... [full story]
Differentiate if you can
Ara GALOYAN | May 5, 2012
The economic week was strangely glutted both in terms of information and events. The most important event was unfortunately expected. The US government has long ago stated that it was going to cease the funding of the Millennium Challenge Corporation project in Armenia. They promised to cease and they did so. The Corporation was supposed to provide 235 million USD for the Armenian projects since 2006 but only 177 million USD was provided. And now our government had to state that the Yerevan office was going to be dissolved. The renovation of inter-community roads still remains a burden for the Armenian state budget. As though this bad news wasn’t enough when it was stated that compared to the previous year the number of tourists to Armenia has reduced. The official reason is the extended winter season. They wouldn’t possibly say that the tourists avoid coming to Armenia during the pre-election period, where the last elections ended with March 1. The author of the next dubious economic information is...
Voter, I’m telling you, but those failing to be elected should listen to this too
Babken TUNYAN | April 26, 2012
When the incumbent and former authorities were speaking of economic growth during many years, experts (including our newspaper as well), reminded people that GDP growth would not necessarily mean economic development yet. We wrote that GDP could grow with double-digits, but in parallel with that the economy could go down. We wrote that if economic growth did not result in increase of the well-being of people of that country, it means that this is not real development and there are no reasons to be happy about it. We were writing about this, but the governmental sources were continuing to praise the growth and even publishing reports one after another. Now, the incumbent government, being represented by the RPA, is changing the attitude and acknowledging that economic growth that does not support the wealth of people does not mean anything. Even the pre-election platform of the RPA has been changed and the section on changes in the economy writs the following: “We are planning to transform from targeting...
Partly pre-election report
Babken TUNYAN | April 21, 2012
Prime-minister Tigran Sargsyan participated in the fourth national awards ceremony and presentation of the report entitled “Armenian national competitiveness report 2011-2012: agenda for improvement of administration practices.” The report was published by the Economy and Values research center and EV Consulting organizations. He report covers Armenia’s competitiveness potential and management practices in companies. The PM came up with speech and said that an important tradition had been originated in Armenia, which was the fact that presentations of such reports were being organized in participation with representatives from the government as well, which enabled all parties involved in the process to hold free and open discussion concerning the topics related thereto. According to Tigran Sargsyan, this means that the government attaches importance to the issue of competitiveness and believes that this is one of the most important factors of the economy. As we see, the government is really...
Harmonic contradiction
Ara GALOYAN | April 21, 2012
Everything is pretty harmonic. The nature is becoming active together with spring. The political life is becoming active with electoral competition. The Armenian media is full of coverage on the Armenian elections and the foreign media is full of information concerning elections in France, the US, Latin countries, etc. readers compare those processes as the economic basements are the same. Due to the international crisis in all countries that are setting foot in elections economic issues are top priorities. The presidential candidates of France, the US and the leaders of our parties are speaking of the same issues. During all meeting with voters all party leaders are promising jobs. The reason is the fact that due to the crisis in Western countries the unemployment rate is extremely high. In the US the unemployment rate has reached 8-9%. In other countries the situation is worse. According to official information, in Spain the unemployment rate of people that can work is 24%. The youth in France has got used to...
And the promises are empty and looks like they are built with Kebab
Babken TUNYAN | April 19, 2012
Judging from the streets and TV our parties have spent quite some time on seriously preparing for the elections by preparing slogans, posters filming TV ads and most importantly writing (or having written down) party platforms. However, regardless of how surprising it might be, during the election processes the key plans are being ignored. No, of course, the political parties with pathos announce that if they win the economy will grow by certain percent, poverty will reduce by certain percent, etc. But this is not the presentation of plans and projects but mostly results. And if there is no explanation behind that it becomes untrustworthy and implausible. It is necessary to have a deeper insight on the matter, which is not quite perceptible during this campaign. For example, when they are saying that the investment will be doubled during the coming years or that the economic shadow will decrease nobody says that it’s impossible. There are many questions, the answers of which would mean a lot to the voters....
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Painting has started
February 23, 2012
In January of this year the economic activity indicator was 4.4% compared to the same period of last year. This information was provided by the national statistics service in its report on macroeconomic indices published recently. According to the report, the most progressive sector was the industry as its production capacity grew by 21% in January. The second sector in the list is the service sector with 6.7% growth. In the other sectors the growth is almost at zero. The foreign trade circulation capacity is not impressive this year either. The import capacity has grown by 6.6%, but the export has not grown (0.4%). To remind, in January 2011 the export growth was 21.3%, and the import capacity had reduced by 1.7%....
Will APPA fees go up?
February 4, 2012
The director of Rosgosstrakh company Rafael Minasbekyan yesterday stated that sooner or later the APPA fees will be revised. According to the Armenian traditions “revision” most probably means “increase.” And the justification of the increase is that the insurance companies not only don’t receive super incomes (as many other thinks) but also lose in certain case (this trend already exists). In that case, the drivers will have to pay more for APPA. The pessimism of the insurance companies creates astonishment. 55% of the APPA funds is returned to the drivers as compensation for damage. It means that the damage rate of the companies depends on the number of road accidents. Starting from January 16 of the current year technical means for fixing traffic violations have been installed (the speed meters and cameras), which according to the patrol police, will essentially reduce the number of accidents and increase the driving discipline. This will decrease the rate of APPA reimbursement....
Under the influence of “cognac production”
December 8, 2011
The authors of a document presented during the RPA’s economic conference at Tumo center assure that in case of paying due attention to 11 priority sectors of the economy the export capacity would grow up to 3.5 billion dollars in 2015, and in 2020 – to 5.5 billion. It is worth mentioning that currently Armenia’s export is 1.2-1.3 billion dollars per year. The government so far has presented analysis of three sectors such as the pharmaceutics, cognac production and precise architecture. Time will show whether these calculations are realistic (in case if the RPA win the upcoming elections and try to make this plan come true). If the parties fail to provide drastic development in the mentioned sectors, it is possible to provide the mentioned export capacity of 3.5 billion dollars on the account of growth of mining sector products international prices. By the way, the export growth so far was due to inflation....
Didn’t they know that winter would come?
December 1, 2011
“Whatever they say, the fact is that we were going to get ready for the winter and had prepared the technical facilities not to have problems. Didn’t the other freight forwarding companies know that winter would come? They would be better to act too because it is almost twenty years that they are in the market. Instead of working they are spreading rumors and making it a topic of discussion,” said Davit Ghazaryan, director of Spayka freight forwarding company, when commenting on the rumors that his vehicles can pass the Upper Lars border point as he has the support of the prime-minister. D. Ghazaryan said that they have new offroad carriers, which help them to carry their trucks in difficult areas. The director of Spayka company assures that they are ready to help other companies too. However, the problem is that the area is so bad that even these offroad carriers may have accident. But the director of the Spayka company assures that if other companies take the responsibility, they are ready...
We are in the last place
October 22, 2011
According to the report of economic analysis center RIA-Analitica, among 29 European countries Armenia occupies the last place with the minimum salary rate. The starting point was chosen the rate, below which salary is prohibited by the law. In Armenia the monthly minimum wage is 86,8 dollars. The next ones after Armenia from the end are Moldova with 95,4, Azerbaijan with 108,1 dollars rates. Russia is in the 23rd place with 165 dollars rate. The first one in the list is Luxemburg with 2,513 dollars minimum salary rate. The next two countries after the first one are Ireland with 2090 dollars and Belgium with 2064 dollars salary rate....
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