ArmInfo. The Armenian authorities were unable to develop a correct and anti-crisis policy, as a result of which in 2021 people will continue to feel the negative consequences associated with the coronavirus and the war. Arman Ghukasyan, the head of the "For Social Justice" party, an expert of the "Voice of the People" club, stated this on January 29 during a teleconference.
Recalling the recent statement by RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan that 2021 will be the year of recovery of Armenia's economic ambitions, the expert, pointing to official statistics, said that 2021 will be the year of realizing the deep crisis in which the country is now. "Initially, economic growth of 4.8% was planned for 2020, but recently the Minister of Economy of Armenia announced that we will have a decline in the region of 8.5% (a decline in both exports and imports). Of course, a pandemic and a war in Artsakh dealt a very big blow to the country's economy, but the authorities were unable to develop a correct and anti-crisis policy, as a result of which people will continue to feel these negative consequences in 2021. Unfortunately, today the government not only does not provide answers on how to resolve these issues, but also does not represent to the public what it will do next," he said.
According to Ghukasyan, this year Armenia is going to increase the state debt to $ 8 billion ($ 400 million from the International Monetary Fund). "The same Pashinyan stated that we can develop the army only with a developed economy, but it is obvious that the development of the economy cannot be imitative, as it was for the last 2.5 years: specific programs and concrete steps must be presented," he stressed. Ghukasyan also added that the full scale of the losses that Armenia suffered over the past year has yet to be found out. The expert is sure that the Eurasian Economic Union can play a large role in improving the Armenian economy, but in any case, economic recovery is impossible without specific tools and methodology, which should be clearly formulated by the Armenian government.
As for the issue of unblocking transport infrastructures in the region, Ghukasyan called on the country's expert community to analyze and imagine what risks this process can carry, how Armenia can minimize these risks and how to use this opportunity as efficiently as possible: "These are the questions our citizens need answers to. The government must honestly present its vision of the situation and solutions to the challenges that Armenia faces, since the work style, which has been in Armenia in the last 2.5 years, will no longer work," he summed up.
