Minister of Finance sums up outgoing year

Armenia’s Minister of Finance Tigran Davtyan has summed up the outgoing year. “The year was extra complicated since we were working at the crisis times. There have been difficulties as Armenian economy never faced such a complicated situation after 1990s,” he said.

“Armenia’s economy has stepped into the stage of stability and next year we will return to previous indicators. The economy decreased by 15% this year according to researches by Armenia’s government and international organisations. The inflation stands by 5-5.5% and goes with the state budget.

“Salaries increased by 11% for 2009.

“A growth is expected in retail trade next year due to decrease of ‘shadows’.

“Despite the situation was complicated, we managed to fulfill all social obligations. We do not expect any difficulties in allocations next year either, while at the current moment we have 80 billion dram free. Besides, there are Russian loans and monetary means of the stabilization fund,” said Minister.

Tax receipts amounted 520 billion drams which is lower than last year’s index, but is higher than next year’s projected figure, according to Tigran Davtyan.