No replies to this topic

[Artur]

The Armenian economy looks set to take a major upswing this year, having expanded in the first quarter at a highest rate in a decade, President Robert Kocharian announced on Thursday. Official data unveiled by Kocharian at a cabinet meeting show Armenia's GDP 12 percent up from the same period last year. A 20 percent rise in industrial output, helped by a nearly 30 percent surge in exports, accounted for a large part of the gain.

Kocharian told ministers that this year "may become decisive for the Armenian economy if the current trends continue." He praised the government for the "unprecedented" macroeconomic performance, denying persisting speculations about Prime Minister Andranik Markarian's eventual sacking. The results of the first quarter are well above the government's 6 percent minimum growth target for the entire year.

"All this is encouraging," Kocharian told reporters after presiding over the weekly cabinet session. "We must work actively and consistently to be able to keep up this pace for the rest of the year."

Asked about the possibility of sweeping changes in Markarian's government, he said: "I don't see the need for changes. I think the situation is generally stable and positive. There will be changes only if they [the ministers] give me grounds for that."

Despite five years of single-digit growth, Armenia is still reeling from the economic slump of the early 1990s that saw its GDP shrink by half. Economists say that a tangible improvement in low living standards requires several more years of growth at the rate of at lest 10 percent.

Kocharian also acknowledged a "very serious" link between Armenia's chances of economic recovery and the resolution of Artsax conflict- an apparent shift in the position he held as recently as three years ago. "The settlement of the Artsax conflict would give a quite strong boost to economic development," he said.

Kocharian and other key ministers who forced Levon Ter-Petrossian into resignation in February 1998 had disagreed with the then-president's belief that quick economic recovery is impossible without peace with Azerbaijan.

© Armgate