MINISTRY OF FINANCE: ARMENIA TO RETURN TO NATURAL GROWTH POLICY IN 2010

ARKA
Jan 25, 2010

YEREVAN, January 25. / ARKA /. Armenia in 2010 will return from the
anti-crisis policy to a policy of natural growth, Minister of Finance
Tigran Davtyan said at a press briefing on Saturday.

"Armenian Ministry of Finance in 2010 has identified three major
programs, the first of which is the return from anti-crisis measures
to the policy of stable economic development," he said.

Head of the Ministry of Finance recalled that in 2009 because of the
negative impact of global financial and economic crisis, the Government
was forced to move to the implementation of anti-crisis policy.

According to Davtyan, the rapid transition to the anti-crisis policies
promptly implement the redistribution of public spending and suspend
the implementation costs, which had no significance for the republic.

The second program to be implemented in 2010, as the minister said,
is to continue building the country’s budget on a program basis,
and the third pillar was the reform of the procurement system.

Speaking about the situation in 2009, the head of the Finance Ministry
said that last year was difficult for the economy because of the
adverse impact of global crisis, and difficult for the finance
department, which bore direct responsibility for the macroeconomic
situation in the country.

Despite the difficulties, according to the Minister, the Finance
Ministry was able to meet all its objectives: to ensure macroeconomic
stability, without which the implementation of economic programs and
crisis action becomes impossible.

According to Davtyan we were also able to maintain stability of the
financial, economic and banking system of Armenia, to ensure the
normal progress of the budget process, which resulted in making of
the expenditure budget, filled with all the social obligations that
have been scheduled yet in the pre-crisis period.

The minister said that despite the difficult situation, the Finance
Ministry managed to carry out a number of reforms, in particular,
to strengthen the system of internal audit in 2009.