ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT READJUSTS ECONOMIC OUTLOOK

Asbarez
/armenian-government-again-adjusts-economic-outloo k/
Aug 5, 2009

YEREVAN (RFE/RL)-Armenia’s economy will likely contract by 12 percent
this year and resume positive growth next year, Prime Minister
Tigran Sargsyan said on Wednesday, presenting his government’s latest
economic outlook.

The country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) shrunk by 16.3 percent in
the first half of the year amid a deepening fallout from the global
recession. Sarkisian warned last month that its full-year contraction
could hit a 20 percent rate.

Sargsyan sounded more optimistic on Wednesday, saying that anti-crisis
measures taken by the Armenian government should result in a GDP
decrease of 12 percent in 2009. "A recovery cycle will start at the end
of the year," he told journalists during a visit to the southeastern
Vayots Dzor region. "This is our tentative forecast."

The premier said the government also expects the Armenian economy to
grow by a modest 1 percent in 2010. "We are going to base the state
budget for 2010 on this indicator," he said.

In an effort to cope with the consequences of the recession, the
government has already obtained more than $1 billion in external
loans from the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Asian
Development Bank and Russia. The money is to be used for financing
infrastructure projects, providing cheaper credit to Armenian
businesses and maintaining the value of the national currency,
the dram.