Armenian PM: Armenian economy is recovering

• Monday, September 24, 19:52

 The results of 2011 prove that the Armenian economy is recovering, Armenia's Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan said in the parliament on Monday.

He said that 2010 was a hard year for the Armenian economy, with inflation being as high as 9.4%.

"In 2011 we were forced to both curb inflation and ensure economic stability. The results of the year prove that we are overcoming our key problems. Particularly, inflation dropped from 11.6% in Mar to 4.7% in Dec, while economic growth made up 4.7% - twice as much as in 2010," Sargsyan said. 

Sargsyan said that industry grew by 13.5% due to favorable conditions on foreign markets and the Armenian Government's efforts to stimulate export.

"The share of industry in GDP made up 16.2% against 13.3% in 2003.  Agriculture registered 13.7% growth after 15.7% decline a year before.  The exports grew by 34%," the Premier said.

Sargsyan qualified the fiscal policy as balanced, for the policy of stage-by-stage reduction of the budget deficit was continued and thereby ensured the stability of the government debt. In 2011 the budget deficit amounted to 2.8% of GDP against the targeted 3.9%. As compared with 2009, the deficit dropped by 4.8 percentage points. As compared with 2011, the tax revenues were up 11.1%, and the taxes/GDP ratio was improved by 0.4% to 20.6%. As regards the budget revenues, their growth amounted to 12.9%. Despite the fiscal consolidation, the budget expenditures grew by 3.4% versus 2011.

The Prime Minister pointed out that the growth in expenditures was mostly due to 6.9% increase in expenses on the social sphere.  "Despite the financial and economic crisis, we managed to not only retain, but also increase the expenses on the social protection system. As a result, the latter's share in GDP in 2011 exceeded the target fixed in the governmental program by 0.5% and made up 6.7%", Sargsyan said.