Expert: In 2017, the Armenian government did not achieve significant success in raising the level of public welfare

ArmInfo. Only 10% of the population of Armenia owns 70% of the property in the country, and only 2% of the wealth is in the hands of 40% of citizens. In these conditions, Armenia still has a high level of poverty - 29.4%, unemployment is at the level of 18%. This January 17, said economist, chairman of the Union of Employers of Armenia Gagik Makaryan, discussing the economic results of the past year.

Meanwhile, as Makaryan said, according to the results of 2017 in Armenia the number of stable enterprises, both newly opened and operating ones, increased. This led to the expansion of employment by almost 40 thousand jobs - from 290 thousand in 2016 to 330 thousand, which, according to the expert's estimates, will reduce the unemployment rate by 1-2%. According to the economist, the creation of jobs, for the most part, is connected with the growth of the tourism sector. At the same time, according to Makaryan, starting from 2016, the unemployment rate among youth stably keeps at around 32%.

The reason for this situation, according to the expert, is that to this day Armenia does not have a well- developed strategy for state macroeconomic policy. For today, the government refers to the development strategy for 2014-2025, which does not provide for regulation related to fiscal and monetary policy in the context of stimulating economic growth and creating conditions for reducing unemployment. Meanwhile, according to this document, the poverty level in the country for 10 years was supposed to be reduced from 32% in 2013 to 14% in 2025. "So, the annual poverty reduction was expected to average by 2 percentage points. However, in 2018, according to the planned plan, we should have seen at least 8% reduction of poverty - up to 24%. This makes it obvious that the existing program does not function," he said. Thus, according to Gagik Makaryan, in 2017 the Armenian authorities did not achieve significant progress in raising the level of public welfare.

According to the National Statistical Service, the unemployment rate in Armenia by October 1, 2017 decreased year-on-year from 18.1% to 16.5%. According to the updated forecast of the Central Bank of Armenia, the unemployment rate in 2017 will be 17.9%, followed by a decrease in the medium-term future by 0.3-0.5 percentage points annually - up to 17.4-17.6%. The poverty level in Armenia, according to the World Bank projections, will decrease in 2017-2018 to 24.1-23.2%, against 24.9% in 2016 and 25.6% in 2015. Meanwhile, on May 18, 2017, from the rostrum of the National Assembly of Armenia addressing the deputies of the sixth convocation parliament, President Serzh Sargsyan stated that the percentage of the poor in the total number of the population in the next five years should be no more than 18%, and in 2040 - 8%.