TBILISI: Yerevan: Poverty Has Decreased Faster Than Expected

YEREVAN: POVERTY HAS DECREASED FASTER THAN EXPECTED
By M. Alkhazashvili
(Translated by Diana Dundua)

The Messenger, Georgia
Jan 16 2007

The Armenian government expects less than six percent of the country’s
population to fall below the poverty line in 2021, the news agency
Regnum reports. Half the population was thought to live in poverty
in 2001, the same year a government launched a program to tackle
the issue.

On January 14, government officials announced that poverty has
decreased much more quickly than expected in Armenia, now affecting
only 27 percent of the population, according to online news source
ArmeniaLiberty.

However, NGOs in Armenia question the government’s methodology for
gauging poverty in the country, ArmeniaLiberty reports.