While the government and opposition are discussing the recent political events and are making predictions about the upcoming developments yesterday the National Statistics Service of Armenia released the next indices about the inflation of consumption goods of Armenia, which may in fact become a weighty factor for the political processes. According to the NSS data during the past 12 months the inflation in Armenia amounted to 12,4%. This really beats the record as of the past 15 years. Moreover, the growth of the prices of groceries amounted to 18,8%. And in February compared to January the prices grew by 1,9%. And this happens in the case when only 3 days ago the minister of finances of Armenia Vache Gabrielyan predicted that in February inflation will be in the frames of 1%. It means that the optimistic presentations and disguising actual numbers is now out of control of the government because the prices in stores grow much higher than the statisticians “rectify” those in their reports. The government cannot practically prevent the inflation and it’s hard to tell to what amounts it will reach in the near future. So in the near future inflation may become the main factor of the political developments by mingling the calculations of the opposition and the government.
