PRINCIPLE OF NOT HARMING OLIGARCHS

Lragir.am
17:33:15 – 13/03/2009

The Armenian dram will depreciate in the future too, announced the
former prime minister of Armenia Hrant Bagratyan hosted at the Hayeli
press club, on March 13. Bagratyan said that the grade of the
depreciation depends on the scale of the transfers from Russia. He
predicts that the exchange rate will vary within 400-850 dram for a
dollar. Hrant Bagratyan said that he does not believe that the Armenian
Central Bank has adopted floating exchange rate policy. According of
the former prime minister, we should not think that price retaining is
good. He said that this situation cannot last for ever and the collapse
is inevitable.
Bagratyan stated that the government works on the principle `do not
harm oligarchs’ and leads a policy which harms only the ordinary
citizens. `Monopolists and oligarchs are killing us today. This should
be realized,’ stated Bagratyan. Real transition to the floating
exchange rate is a favourable and necessary step for our economy.

Hrant Bagratyan said doubtful that no Armenian bank went bankrupt
despite the world banks. According to Bagratyan, this is reasoned by
the assistance of the Armenian government to the banks because the
government did not want to harm them.

Hrant Bagratyan did not agree with the decision of the government on
raising a loan in the copper-molybdenic factory of Kajaran saying tha
t
that is a waste of means as the company was drowning. It would be
better to allocate that money to rural economy. Supposing that the
former Armenian president Robert Kocharyan is connected with this
decision Hrant Bagratyan noted, `Why the Azerbaijani oil is state
property and the Armenian molybdenum became somebody’s property?’