ACCORDING TO OPPOSITION’S ESTIMATES, ARMENIAN POPULATION LOSES 300-460 DOLLARS IN YEAR AS RESULT OF DRAM’S APPRECIATION
Noyan Tapan
Jun 14 2006
YEREVAN, JUNE 14, NOYAN TAPAN. "Economists calculated that 26 mln
USD was stolen from the population in a month as a result of the
dram-dollar operation of the authorities." The Secretary of the
Justice faction Victor Dallakian stated this in the RA National
Assembly on June 13. By his estimates, the sum amounted to nearly
300 mln USD over a year. "It is a crime against one’s own people,
and all this is going on amidst widespread poverty," he stated.
According to estimates of the leader of the National Unity faction
Artashes Geghamian, a theft of the sum equivalent to 460 mln USD was
committed in the country as a result of an artificial appreciation of
the dram. He said that last year’s superprofits from import made at
least 220 mln USD, while the population receiving remittances from
abroad suffered a loss of 200 mln USD due to a 16% appreciation of
the Armenian dram.