For journalists involved in the economical field, probably the most difficult thing is to write the last article of the year. The last means the concluding one. But the economical year officially is finalized some time later. The national statistical service will conclude the economical year in a minimum of two months. As for the government, according to the law, they have to present the budget fulfillment documents to the National Assembly until May 1. The government has always “followed” this law and made their final statement on the threshold of the world workers’ day. The central bank does the same too. Besides the late statement there is another reason for this too. Newspaper readers prefer to read “happy”, funny and optimistic articles on the threshold of the holiday season. I agree that all articles about the Armenian economy can be considered as comic genre and funny articles. But I’ll never agree that these articles are “happy”. I don’t think the developments in our economical field are successful and will not have any harmful results later. For instance, how can the deflation of the national currency not have negative results in a country where the main public income is in foreign currency? Of course I mean the money received from abroad by the people working there or getting money transfers from relatives. According to experts, these sums exceed the budget of our country minimum twice. In spite of all this I assure you that in the coming several months there will be no lack of comic sense and funny articles. Just like during the passed years. For instance when the CB started to explain why they couldn’t fulfill their responsibilities defined by the law: they couldn’t keep the inflation mark in the planned range. Do you remember how funny was the announcement of the CB regarding that they did their work in a dully manner but the inflation was a result of the bread price increase? We can only say that it is pity that these people don’t make these speeches in their holiday speeches. But generally this year from the economical view didn’t differ from the previous ones. I mean we lived this year with the hope to meet economical miracle too. Miracle, that didn’t come this year either. On the other hand the expectations from the “Lins” foundation were justified. At the end of this year not our compatriot, but the US government announced that they are going to sponsor road construction programs in Armenia. With this and some other purposes they will provide 230 million USD for Armenia during the coming five years. This made our bad mood better on the threshold of the New Year. It turned out that Russians would make the price for gas up for about 100 million dollars, Americans would provide grant programs for about 230 million dollars, and we would be able to make some “complementary plays”. Actually the economical development prosperities are not clear yet either. And this in case when the gas price increase will not seriously influence on our economy. Anyway, this is what some oligarchs and representatives of the International Monetary Fund want to assure us. And in fact they are right, because this increase can’t seriously influence on the economy of a country that doesn’t have good production potential, even if the statistical service draws numbers to indicate good potential. Last year the opening of the Rusal – Armenal – Kanaz company could be a good achievement. A big delegation from Russia visited Armenia and the national TV company broadcasted programs to inform about this visit. But later it turned out that the company was not opened and only one out of the planned six production lines was operated. This was not news either. We have experienced this kind of “multiple openings” in our past (for example the chemical factory of Vanadzor, the sugar factory of Gyumri, etc.). In fact this year didn’t have serious economical developments: there were neither scandalous privatizations nor serious economical developments. Instead of this it turned out that we didn’t have any rights on the companies operating on our territories. Several months ago the authorities were disappointed to learn that the management of the energetic system was replaced without consulting with them. Then when they learned that it was not clear yet whether the management had been replaced or not, they came down. They came down and later the competition for Yerevan “Jrmough” company operation finished, where a French company won the first place. It is already difficult to invite serious partners and companies in Armenia to operate businesses, because as soon as they came here they promised to increase the prices for water supply starting from May.
The fact that the passed year was not successive from the economical view is not so important. The national statistical service will find a solution how to show a good economical development in their numbers. But it is pity that it will be in about three months and we will lose the chance to see these numbers and get happy just during this holiday season.