“We’re in a stable crisis”
The National Statistical Service released statistics on the social state in Armenia and, according to the results there has been an 18.3% economic downfall in the past nine months. This serves as a basis for economist Vahagn Khachatryan to say that Armenia is in a deep economic crisis.
"The government continues to say that the economic crisis is fading away in Armenia, but in reality, the government's actions are fruitless because the logic of Armenia's economy is not changing," said Mr. Khachatryan to "A1+".
By saying "logic of economy", Khachatryan refers to the oligarchic system in Armenia's economy. The economist is sure that there will be no change in the economy as long as there is lack of competition, no elimination of monopolies and as long as the economy is sustained by construction and foreign money transfers.
The economist doesn't tie the improvement of the economy with the overcoming of the global economic crisis. "First, we need to enforce laws, eliminate the privileges for oligarchs and promote the development of small and medium businesses." Otherwise, according to Khachatryan and as experts at the World Bank predict, Armenia will have 10% rich and 80-90% poor people.
"We are currently in a stable crisis," says Khachatryan.
Vahagn Khachatryan is sure that the Turkish-Armenian border will be opened, but he doesn't know when. "Perhaps it will open in 1-2 years, but Armenia's economy is not ready for that. We are not ready to compete against Turkey's cheap and high-quality products. Our economy has turned uncompetitive in the past 10 years."
The economist claims that the Turkey-Armenia Protocols included preconditions and one of those preconditions was the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
"It's always like that. The government doesn't say the truth when there is something to hide from the people. For instance, when the whole world was talking about the crisis, the Armenian government said that there was no such thing," said Khachatryan, explaining the government's denial of the preconditions in the Protocols.
