“Armenia’s population income growth rate is higher than the GDP growth rate,” Armenian Deputy Minister of Trade and Economic Development Tigran Davtyan reported. “In fact, GDP growth has had an effect on the population’s incomes,” he said. According to him, economy gains momentum, and the economic development tells upon the population. "It’s another thing that we want it to tell upon all the layers of the society," Davtyan said.
He pointed out that today’s average salary in Armenia is almost equivalent to $200 (AMD 68,000), with GDP per capita in USD equivalent exceeding $2,000 ($500 ten years ago).
"We want to have European standards of life, but we should also take into account objective factors – the average salary has never reached this level in Armenia before," Davtyan said.
According to him, car imports also point to the improvement of living standards.
According to Armenia’s National Statistical Service, the population’s money income totaled AMD 1,722,253.7 mln in 2006 – a 19.8% increase against 2005. The population’s financial expenditures amounted to AMD 1,650,686.8 mln – a 18.9% increase. Economic growth of 13.4% was recorded in Armenia in the period. The investments in the sectors of food and drink production and restaurant and hotel services amounted to respectively 16,9 and 16,3 million USD. It’s worth mentioning that the investments of the same sectors, made several years ago, amounted to hardly 1-2 million USD. Davtyan mentioned that during the last 1-2 years Armenian businessmen have also started to make investments abroad. In 2006, Armenians made 27,9 million USD investments in foreign countries. Speaking of others making investments in Armenia, Davtyan mentioned that Russia occupies first place. Compared to the previous year’s 67 million USD, in 2006 Russia’s investment in Armenia was due mainly to Armenal and Arm Rus Gazarad, which along with Armentel amounted to 87 million USD. The investments of Argentina (mainly Armenia’s airport) amounted to 62 million USD, from Lebanon (mostly in Viva Cell) the investments reach about 64 million USD, and from Germany (mainly Zangezur’s copper-molybdenum factory) – 47 million USD.