PANEL DISCUSSION OF INFLUENCE OF GLOBAL CRISIS ON ARMENIA HELD IN YEREVAN

ARKA
Apr 10, 2009

YEREVAN, April 10. /ARKA/. A panel discussion of the impact of the
global financial and economic crisis on the Armenian economy has been
held in Yerevan on the initiative of the International Monetary Fund
(IMF).

The former minister of finance of Armenia, Chief Advisor for the
AVAG Solutions consultancy Levon Barkhudaryan said that the present
financial and economic crisis is different from the previous ones
because it has affected the entire world, not a particular country
or region.

"The fact that the crisis affected all the countries is the result of
globalization and of higher-level integration of financial system with
the global economy. This means that there are neither winner-countries
nor loser-countries. All countries have been affected by the crisis,
and must combine their efforts to temper the impacts," he said.

Barkhudaryan pointed out that joint actions proved to be the slogan
declared at the G-20 Summit a week ago – combining efforts to survive
the crisis.

A proposal was even made to allocate US 1,100bln for this purpose.

Barkhudaryan reminded the participants of a decision to enhance the
role of international agencies, particularly the World Bank (WB) and
the IMF, in averting and combating global crises. The first optimist
forecasts were made that the crisis will be possible to cope with
from next y ear.

"Our discussion is focused on the impact of the global financial and
economic crisis on the Armenian economy. The crisis is influencing
all the countries, but this influence is specific for particular
countries – their economic development, integration with the world
market, GDP structure," Barkhudaryan said.

According to him, one of the specific features was that the first
shock was not so profound due to poor integration of the Armenian
financial and economic system with the global financial market.

"In the course of time, this influence grew stronger. A similar
situation developed in 1998, on the black Tuesday," Barkhudaryan said.

According to him, the participants will not only discuss the impact of
the crisis on Armenia, but also present comparative analyses of the
crisis on different countries, discuss the situation in the Armenian
banking system and the impact of the crisis on the Armenian business
environment.