According to Tatul Manaserian, gradual shift to floating exchange rate
would not affect negatively purchasing capacity of population

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YEREVAN, MARCH 10, NOYAN TAPAN. A sudden shift to a floating exchange
rate policy was a correct and objective approach, otherwise the
Armenian economy would have suffered considerable losses, while the
negative impact of the global financial crisis on the country’s
financial market had already been seen. The RA deputy minister of
finance Vardan Aramian expressed this opinion at the March 9 debate.

The member of the parliamentary "ARF" faction Artsvik Minasian said
that all the objective conditions for the dram’s depreciation had
already been created, but the question is how it should have been done:
gradually or suddenly? In his words, a stage-by-stage shift would be a
stricter one, but no calculations on it are presented to the public.
"So the public has some concerns, negative expectations, tension," A.
Minasian noted. He pointed out that the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA)
should publish the list of the entities who benefited from the
situation and increased their wealth by 30% during 2-3 days.

Doctor of Economics, Professor Tatul Manaserian considered wasting at
least 700 dollars of the state budget for maintaining the dram’s
exchange rate as unacceptable. In his opinion, the depreciation of the
dram should have been done gradually. According to him, in case of a
gradual shift, the state would have been able not to affect negatively
the purchasing capacity of the population, especially as the gas, water
and power prices will rise starting from April 1. He said that in these
conditions the state should raise the minimum wage to 30-40 thousand
drams.

In his words, the whole government is responsible for this situation.
He said that the business circle puts a serious pressure on the
government, preventing the executive branch from acting freely in the
existing situation. "As a proof, I would like to note that last week
the government withdrew from the National Assembly the bill that
proposed increasing the customs duty of imported goods by 15%," T.
Manaserian said.