Armenian government's economic growth forecasts 'far from revolutionary' - opposition lawmaker

The economic growth forecasts reflected in the 2020 Draft State Budget fall short of meeting the economic revolution targets announced by the prime minister earlier this year, an opposition MP from the Prosperous Armenia party said today, pointing out to low investment records.

At the National Assembly debate addressing next year's chief fiscal document, Mikayel Melkumyan noted that the direct foreign investments in the past months dropped to AMD 7.8 billion against last year's AMD 38 billion (AMD 475.57 = USD 1), ″Those records are too far from the desired point to allow for securing a sufficient economic growth,″ he said, noting that despite the insignificance of numerical indexes, no structural changes were observed either.   

Disagreeing to Melkumyan's remark, Minister of Finance Atom Janjughazyan said they do not see any risk at the moment to question the credibility of the proposed reforms. ″Making evaluations is certainly difficult given that this is a conservative approach which, however, does not create any stability-related risks. This is the only way to which there should be no alternative at all as we must secure a steady environment. That's not subject to any discussion,″ he said.  

As for the investment-related concerns, Janjughazyan agreed that figures are not the only important thing, promising future efforts to embark on the structural reforms ″in the next phase″ of the government's activities. ″Every entrepreneur faces the challenge of getting adjusted to a new environment. What we have today falls certainly short of meeting our targets, but to secure a 7%, 8% and 9% growth we need to invest extra efforts on our part,″ he added.

Melkumyan insisted on the minister, nonetheless, to elaborate on the AMD 37 billion and AMD 7 billion worth investments (promised after last year's power transition). ″Investment expectations are normally great in a revolutionary period. The enthusiasm is in place - or has probably faded away - also due to objective reasons,″ he noted.

The minister agreed that promising investments or announcing intentions in an enthusiastic spirit are absolutely different from acting in specific circumstances. ″Speeches in the initial phase do not imply investments as such. An investment is possible only after calculations and in terms of perceiving the environment. Small though an economy may be, capacity building does really matter,″ he added.  

Admitting that the domestic market is limited, the minister regretted to note that potential investors very often put the stakes on large-scale investment projects. ″We need self-assertion on the capital market, and this is actually why we are now making specific steps to make the atmosphere [investment-] frinedly and incomparably larger,″ he added.

Related news

• Armenian government pursues 'conservative approaches' to economic growth forecasts, prime minister says