Artsvik Minasyan Asks Armenia’s Government to Remove their Rose-Coloured Glasses

Armenia today is in the post-crisis stage of ascent; the 2011 GDP per capita in the country will reach 2008 indicators, said RA Deputy Minister of Finance Vardan Aramyan rather optimistically at a press conference today, noting that this year’s budget based on a 1.2% economic growth has risen slightly as a result of discussions with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The deputy minister announced that the rate of the economic growth will speed up after June.

The RA Standing Committee on Financial-Credit and Budgetary Affairs Deputy Chair and Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF-D, Dashnkatsutyun) MP Artsvik Minasyan, however, didn’t agree with Aramyan’s forecast. In fact, Minasyan went as far as to say to Aramyan to remove his rose-coloured glasses, since “the colour density on the colourful glasses cannot change the situation.”

“Your much-loved international bodies record the poverty level in Armenia as being at 30%, [and] the unemployment indicator is the same. And it’s not advantageous for you to present the truth with bright colours,” said Minasyan, while proposing the government to publicize specific results from the work carried out.

Prior to this observation, Aramyan was stating that the level of unemployment declined in the two months of this year, and that the government’s decision to raise pension and social welfare payments will ease the social tension.