Friday, January 29 2021 15:08

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.