DEPUTY FINANCE MINISTER PREDICTS 12%-15% ECONOMIC DECLINE FOR 2009
ARKA
Aug 19, 2009
YEREVAN, August 19, /ARKA/. A deputy finance minister Vardan Ajemian
said today the country’s full-year economic contraction could range
between 12%-15% this year.
Speaking at a news conference he said this forecast should be taken
into consideration by the government while it is planning the recovery
measures.
According to him, the sooner the financial injections of the government
are utilized by different sectors of the economy the less the economic
downturn will be. According to official figures, the Armenian economy
contracted by 16.3% in the first six months of the year, dragged down
by construction sector and industry that plummeted 53.5% and 11.5%
respectively.
‘As a matter of fact, the economy plunged deeper than we had
predicted,’ the deputy finance minister said, noting that the global
economic downturn was likewise deeper than anticipated. According to
him, the economic fall in the European Union in the second quarter
fell 6% from a year earlier.
Vardan Ajemian said this instability forces experts and major
international lending organizations, particularly, the International
Monetary Fund (IMF), to reconsider their economic outlooks. For
example, the IMF has revised its economic forecast for EU five times
this year.
"Forecasts are being reconsidered not because the situation is
worsening but because the fall was deeper t han predicted. Therefore,
economic developments in Armenia are fully in tune with global trends,’
he said.