ARMENIA’S ECONOMY SUFFERS LESS THAN OF BALTIC COUNTRIES

PanARMENIAN.Net
28.08.2009 15:55 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Unlike many CIS countries Armenia has not had
shock absorbers, others have: provident funds, mining and raw
materials. "Such countries like Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan,
Azerbaijan have had large accumulations, enabling them to cover their
budget deficits," Tigran Davtyan , Finance Minister of Armenia told
a press conference on Friday.

Armenia, as he said, has not had these opportunities, and from this
point of view the country has been in much more vulnerable position
to the global crisis. Nevertheless, according to Tigran Davtyan,
the global crisis greater affected more open and developed economies
like Kazakhstan and Russia.

On the other hand, countries with small economies have been also
affected largely. "The global crisis has had the greatest impact on
Baltic countries, registered 20 per cent decline in economies, "the
minister of finance said. According Tigran Davtyan, the situation in
these countries in terms of socio-economic and fiscal stability is
significantly worse than in Armenia, although like Armenia they have
small and open economies, lack mining resources, raw materials and
funds. "In these countries, governments were forced to reduce budget
spending, in particular, cut social programs (salaries, pensions),
and the banking system had faced serious problems," he said.