Armenia's economy suffers depression despite latest growth – oppositionist

Armenia's economy is suffering a serious depression despite the 2.6% growth recorded this year, according to former Central Bank President Bagrat Asatryan, currently representing the opposition Armenian National Congress.

"We are again facing system-generated problems, with the economy being in a deep depression. The only way out is the reformation of the system," he told a news conference on Thursday, adding that the main problems for Armenia's economy were corruption, monopolies and the criminal-oligarchic system.

Speaking of the inlfation rate, he said it is mainly caused by the Central Bank's wrong policy of "making injections in the market".
In the meantime, he added that monopolies too, contribute to the growing inflation.

As for the 2010 economic growth, he said the positive tendencies resulted mostly from recovery in some sectors, particularly, the mining industry.

The main problem, according to the expert, is whether the authorities in Armenia will be able to take advantage of the positive signals and improve the country's economic situation.