Monopolies control almost 20% of Armenia's economy, which, according to WB experts, is the highest level in the former USSR and Eastern Europe, while oligopolies have as much as 67%. In this light, the Government's declarations that they are fighting monopolies sound like some miserable excuses, opposition MP Levon Zurabyan said in the Parliament on Wednesday.
He said that in Armenia food prices are 17% higher than in the other CIS countries. "Armenia is dying of cancer, with its regime offering paracetamol as a cure. The authorities lie when they say that in Armenia monopolies have just 8.3% of the economy. They claim that in 2010-2012 they reduced monopolies from 56% to 12%, but they do not specify which markets they mean. Do they really mean the sugar, grain or fuel markets, where monopolies are still thriving? They say that Armenia is already more competitive than Azerbaijan, Georgia and Russia. This is real nonsense. What they are actually doing is artificially raising prices and the AMD rate so as to get dividends for their own selves," Zurabyan said.