ArmInfo. Economic Suren Parsyan proposes that Armenia's authorities dismiss the officials in charge of the socio-economic and monetary policies.
"The year-on-year inflation reached 10.3% on Armenia's consumer market this June. Food prices have risen by 17.1%. Of course, not only external factors but also internal ones account for this price rise. One of the internal factors is a 4-9% rise utilities prices in January-June, which raised the production cost of goods and services in Armenia," the expert wrote in a Facebook message.
The decline in Armenia's agricultural sector greatly influenced the June inflation. In the first quarter of 2022, a 5.4% decline in Armenia's agricultural sector was recorded, with a 45.8% rise in prices for vegetables and a 16.2% rise in prices for fruits.
"It is clear now that the Central Bank is for the second successive year failed its monetary policy. This year the CBA has forecast 4% inflation, whereas the actual inflation is twice as high. Even the CBA-encouraged expensive money policy is incapable of resolving the inflation problem in Armenia. But this short-sighted policy is causing great damage to local producers and exporters, which could cause a loss of thousands of jobs," Mr Parsyan writes.
With high unemployment and poverty levels, people spend most of their money in food. 80,000 more undernourished people have lately been registered in Armenia. "The government's belated and inadequate social programmes cannot slow down improverishment in our society," the expert writes. "We need an anti-crisis government that would develop and implement new sectoral policies," he states.
