Central bank: 2010 to be year of recovery for Armenia

YEREVAN, January 4. /ARKA/. On Tuesday, Vache Gabrielyan, deputy
chairman of the Central Bank of Armenia, summarizing the results of
2009, said 2010 would be a year of recovery for the country.

He said that 2009 was a very hard year for Armenia because of impacts
of the global recession, but the country’s financial sector has
managed to resist these challenges.

`But it doesn’t mean that everything is O.K. in Armenia’s financial
and banking sectors, and they are free from troubles. The opposite –
we have plenty to do.’

However, he said, the course of the system’s development shows that
precipitous decline in the first half of 2009 was followed by a rally.

Gabrielyan said that new loans extended to the economy and the
increased financial mediation amid the crisis played an important part
in healing the situation.

At the same time, he said that many problems are still waiting for
their solutions.

Among these problems, he singled out the lack of diversification and
competition as well as shadow economy that directly affect the
financial sector.

Gabrielyan said that the coming year would be difficult from the
microeconomic point of view, since the impact of this year’s bailout
policy would become visible in 2010.

`We enter 2010 with higher inflation than in 2009. But recovery needs
certain expenses, and we made them. We are convinced that these
expenses were necessary and will produce results.’ M.V.-0—-