FORMER PRIME MINISTER ATTACKS EX-PRESIDENT ROBERT KOCHARIAN

ARKA
March 25, 2010

YEREVAN, March 25, /ARKA/. Former prime minister Hrant Bagratian
attacked today ex-president Robert Kocharian for claiming in a rare
interview earlier this week that under his presidency the country’s
construction sector was experiencing a boom.

Speaking at a news conference Hrant Bagratian said Robert Kocharian’s
claims are inconsistent with real facts.

In the interview Robert Kocharian argued that during his 1998-2008
rule the Armenian economy grew by over 10 percent per annum while
the external debt and budget deficit steadily decreased as a share of
Gross Domestic Product from 46% to 13%. Kocharian also recalled that
construction accounted for 20% of the GDP, while the budget deficit
was less than 2% and the annual inflation rate was between 2-4%.

Kocharian also and claimed that there is still `huge’ domestic demand
for apartments and office space and that the government of president
Serzh Sarkisian could have used it for mitigating the impact of the
global recession.

According to Bagratian, during Kocharian’s presidency a total of
512,000 square meters of housing was built, while in 1993, the heaviest
year for Armenia, some 350,000 square meters of housing had been built.

‘We did not built so-called elite housing, we built homes for people
in the earthquake zone, while during Kocharian’s rule only elite
apartments were built in downtown Yerevan,’ Hrant Bagratian said.

Bagratian claimed then that some $3 billion invested in construction
during Kocharian’s rule are now frozen and can not be used to recover
the economy.

Major construction last year totaled 575.7 billion Drams. According
to official figures, the sector slashed last year by 36.4%. The volume
of individual construction plunged by 71%.($1 – 394.40 Drams).

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress