Armenian government summed up results of social and economic development in 2017

ArmInfo.  On February 27,  Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan held a meeting with those  responsible for the development, approval and implementation of the  state socio- economic and fiscal policy with a view to discussing and  summarizing the socio-economic development of the country for 2017.

Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of  International Economic Integration and Reforms Vache Gabrielyan, Head  of the Staff of the President Armen Gevorgyan, Chairman of the  Central Bank of the Republic of Armenia Artur Javadyan, and the head  of the National Statistical Service of Armenia and heads of the  structures responsible for the development and implementation of  social and economic policy, as well as other officials of the  Presidential Administration. As the head of government Karen  Karapetyan pointed out, the figures presented today are preliminary -  they will be compared with the final annual indicators published by  the National Statistical Service and, accordingly, clarifications  were made.

Within the agenda, Deputy Minister, Minister of International  Economic Integration and Reforms Vache Gabrielyan, Minister of  Economic Development and Investments Suren Karayan and Finance  Minister Vardan Aramyan reported on the main indicators and the  overall picture of economic growth in Armenia in 2017.

The President stressed the importance of regular analysis of the  results of the economic and social spheres for the development of  economic policy, its clarification and improvement. The President  drew the attention of the meeting to the inclusiveness of economic  growth, stressing that the results of economic growth should be  accessible to all layers of society and especially for socially  vulnerable groups. In this context, Serzh Sargsyan stressed that in  the coming years, in parallel with ensuring high rates of economic  growth, it is important to consistently work towards creating  favorable conditions for the demographic indicators it has  established.

According to the head of state, the analysis is undoubtedly based on  operational information received from agencies and international  partners. "Of course, when the National Statistical Service publishes  the final figures, we will certainly make our clarifications." The  main goal of the analysis, or, as Mr. Prime Minister likes to say, is  to find out the components of economic growth, economic growth, to  distinguish them, since it depends on the components of growth, what  revenues we will have, and of course, taking into account the  revenues and sustainability of these components, their duration, our  future programs can be more precise and more realistic," he said.

Serzh Sargsyan expressed hope that within the next few weeks the work  on the Strategy of Economic and Social Development of Armenia until  2030 will be completed. "Taking into account also the fact that the  government achieved good results in 2017, I do not think that  deviations will be great, we are likely to have an economic growth of  7.4-7.7%, which is undoubtedly a good indicator. But we must also  take into account that a good economic growth of one year can not  affect the broad layers of our society, another two or three years of  similar growth, and I think that by this we will be able to create  very good bases for the implementation of our demographic programs,  "said the head Republic, stressing that the year 2018 the government  started with good indicators, however, according to the president, it  is still impossible to say that Armenia has reached the limit of its  possibilities, until the results of this work became tangible for all  layers of the public.

According to National Statistical Service data, economic activity as  of the end of 2017 was 7.7%, against the slowdown in 2016 to 0.5%  from 3.1% for 2015. The final figures on economic growth of the  National Statistics Service promise to be published soon, but in May  2017 in an exclusive interview with ArmInfo the Minister of Finance  of Armenia Vardan Aramyan stated that the government of the Republic  has much higher ambitions for economic growth than the budgeted  figure of 3.2 %.

In September, the Ministry of Finance revised its expectations to  4.3-4.5%, and in December, responding to the question of ArmInfo, the  head of the agency noted that, by the results of the year, he expects  a growth of 5.5-6%. As of the end of 2017, the Ministry of Finance of  Armenia expects economic growth in the range of 6.7- 7.4%, the  Ministry of Economic Development expects 7% or more, and the Central  Bank says about the final indicator of 6.4%. Meanwhile, Armenia  completed 2016 with economic activity of 0.5%, GDP growth was only  0.2%. In the future, 2018, GDP growth is expected at 4.5%.