Economist Suren Parsyan, who heads the ARF Bureau's Economic Research Office, on Thursday reacted to the statements of the Armenian authorities regarding the socio-economic achievements of 2021.

He states that in reality they are “inertial, almost unrelated to the work of the government and very modest.”

"According to the official statistics, 5.8% growth was recorded in 2021 against the background of 7.4% decline in 2020. That is, the current government even failed to reach the indicators of 2019,” he wrote on Facebook on Thursday.

“To compare, Georgia’s economy grew by 10.6% in 2021 after 6.8% drop in 2020. Unlike Armenia, Georgia's economy not only recovered after 2020, but also recorded an economic growth of 3 percentage points compared to 2019. Thus, compared to Armenia, Georgia's economy grew twice as fast by 2021.

“Georgia's foreign trade turnover increased by 25.6% and Armenia's turnover – by 17.7%. With the double-digit economic growth in 2021, inflation in Georgia was 13.9% and in Armenia – 7.2%," the economist said.