Azat Posted January 23, 2002 Report Share Posted January 23, 2002 January 23, 2002 10:45am 01/23/2002 Yerevan, 23 January: Even by the standards of countries with a transition economy, poverty in Armenia has reached a catastrophic scale, Armenian Minister of Finance and Economy Vardan Khachatryan, the Armenian cochairman of the Armenian-American working group for economic cooperation, said today at the ceremony of opening of the fourth session of the group. He said that the average poverty level in countries with a transition economy was 31 per cent. According to World Bank experts, 55 per cent of Armenia's population are considered poor and 13.5 per cent of the country's residents are below the poverty line. Khachatryan added that on the whole, 68.5 per cent of the country's population need social protection, and the reforms conducted at the moment have not yielded tangible results. The minister said that in early 2001, the government endorsed an intermediate strategic poverty reduction programme in the country, whose main criteria were stable economic growth, increase in the effectiveness of state management and fight against corruption. This programme is to be financed with a credit from the International Monetary Fund and by attracting funds from donor countries. The overall cost of the programme for 2001-2003 is 87m dollars. [Passage omitted: other details] Source: Arminfo, Yerevan, in Russian 1130 gmt 23 Jan 02 All Material Subject to CopyrightCopyright 2002. All Rights Reserved. Financial Times Information Limited - Asia Africa Intelligence Wire http://hoovnews.hoovers.com/fp.asp?layout=...61e0004f815338e Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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