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Armenian economic growth amounted at 9.9% in January-Septemb


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Yerevan, October 25, 2001. (CNA). The economic growth in Armenia amounted at 9.9% in January-September 2001. Armenia did not have such good indexes for 10 years of its independence, the Armenian President Robert Kocharian told journalists. The growth in the capital construction amounted at over 17%, in agriculture - over 11%. The authorities try to maintain this tendency, although "slightly different processes happen in the world nowadays," Kocharian mentioned. The war in Afghanistan lead to business slowing down, and this cannot but affect the Armenian economy. However, the state government tries to reduce this influence to nothing, Kocharian added. -OK-

 

© 2001 CNA/www.caspian.ru

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  • 2 years later...

I recall at various occasions the issue of who sends what kind of help to Armenia and what is Diaspora’s protion in it has been discussed in this forum (don't remember where it was.) I hope that the below material may provide some adequate perspectives on the subject and explain why the contributions of “Hayastantcies” are not much visable in various “telethones.”

 

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ARMENIAN CASH REMITTANCES UP IN 2003

 

By Atom Markarian

 

The amount of cash sent home by Armenians working abroad -- the main source of hard currency for their economically struggling country -- is on track to grow by nearly 20 percent this year, a senior finance official said on Wednesday.

 

Tigran Sarkisian, chairman of Armenia’s Central Bank, said their estimated total is likely hover between $450 million and $500 million, a figure close to the nation’s state budget and trade deficit in 2002. Russia and other large former Soviet republics continue to account for most of the remittances increasingly handled by local commercial banks, he added.

 

Ever since the post-Soviet economic collapse plunged Armenia into poverty in the early 1990s the cash transfers have been the principal source of income for tens of thousands of Armenian families whose main bread-winners went abroad in search of employment. Most of them now work, both legally and illegally, in Russia and the United States.

 

Their money plays a crucial role in mitigating Armenia’s huge trade and current account deficits. The country’s net imports, for instance, were worth twice as much as its exports in the first half of this year, resulting in a trade gap of about $300 million.

 

Incidentally, Sarkisian was speaking at the official opening of a new Yerevan head office of Areximbank, one of several Armenian banks for which the remittances are a key source of earnings. Areximbank, which is owned by wealthy Russian-based Armenians, has already processed more than $60 million worth of hard currency payments from Russia in 2003.

 

According to the Central Bank chief, commissions charged for such services have considerably dropped in recent years as a result of growing competition among the local banks specializing in the business. “It is the bank clients that mainly benefit from that competition,” he said.

 

http://www.armenialiberty.org/armeniarepor...D3C03075B49.ASP

Edited by MJ
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