IMF: ARMENIA’S ECONOMIC DOWNTURN NOT TO SURPASS DOUBLE-FIGURE

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
24.06.2009 18:25 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenia’s economic downturn will not to surpass a
two-digit number, Ninke Omes, IMF permanent representative to Armenia
told a news conference today. "According to our estimations, the
economic downturn in Armenia will not surpass 10 per cent annually,
in particular, it will be around 9.5 per cent, " she said. However,
there is some uncertainty conditioned by the global economic crisis
and that showing can be higher or lower.

Over the last 5 years the economic downturn in Armenia reached a
double-figure, 15.7 per cent compared to the same period of last
year. According to Ninke Omes, this sharp downturn has been conditioned
by the small size of the Armenian market and a 56 per cent decline
in the construction industry.

Saying that an average annual inflation in Armenia will reach 3 per
cent, Ninke Omes particularly mentioned, that "inflation rate is lower,
than we expected".

As it was expected, devaluation of the national currency in March
negatively affect the economy and inflation will icrease, but it is
not happened. "Reduction of the world consumer demand and the domestic
demand in Armenia enabled to curb the inflation pace, therefore prices
for some imported goods even reduced," Ninke Omes said.

According to her, some positive trends are noticed, related to
increase in world prices for copper and molibdenium, which will
positievly impact the Armenian economy. On the other hand, growth
in oil prices positevely influence the Russian economy, which will
result in an increased money inflows from Russia, tangibly reduced
in a global crises.