Arka News Agency, Armenia
July 28, 2006

IMF: ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT MAKES PROGRESS

YEREVAN, July 28. /ARKA/. During the last four years the Armenian
Government has managed to resolve numerous problems and make
progress, IMF Resident Representative James McHugh stated at his
meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan, the
information department, RA Government, reports.
He pointed out that when he was appointed to IMF Resident
Representative to Armenia in 2002 the Armenian Government encountered
problems such as arrears of wages and pensions, high unemployment
level. Most of the problems have been resolved.
At present, the Armenian Government does not have debts. Rather, it
manages to save funds by the end of year. Progress has been observed
in the implementation of the strategic program of poverty reduction,
the level of abject poverty has been reduced, steady economic growth
has been recorded and employment indicators have been improved,
McHugh said.
He also presented the IMF’s future programs in Armenia, pointing out
that the IMF missions for financial sector, statistics, monitoring
and technical assistance are shortly to visit Armenia.
McHugh stressed that, by preliminary estimates, structural reforms
have almost been completed in Armenia.- the economic growth is more
than was expected, progress has been recorded in other fields as
well. In this context, he expressed the confidence that the results
of the IMF’s program will be summed up without problems.
In his turn, the Armenian Premier stressed the importance of IMF
missions’ visits to Armenia. He pointed out that they meet the
priorities of Armenia’s economic policy and the visists may be rather
effective. P.T. -0—