WESTERN DONORS LAUD ECONOMIC GROWTH IN ARMENIA

Saturday, July 30, 2005
Eurasianet
Emil Danielyan
(Emil Danielyan is a Yerevan-based journalist and political analyst.)

Armenia’s continuing robust economic growth is winning accolades from Western donors. A consensus is building among economic experts that the tiny South Caucasus state is finally emerging from its post-Soviet doldrums.
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According to official statistics, Armenia’s Gross Domestic Product rose by 10.2 percent in the first half of this year. The GDP growth has averaged 11 percent during the previous four years. [...].
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Brian Kearney, who runs a US government-funded project to reform Armenia’s social security system, said economic growth has had a visible impact on living standards, adding that it has also lifted the public mood.[...].
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"There are very few countries that have achieved such important progress in such a short period of time," the IMF’s Carstens said.
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However, some economic analysts view official figures with skepticism.[...]. The National Statistical Service of Armenia (NSSA) estimated in a 2003 report that the average Armenian family spent two thirds of its income on food -- a telling indicator of persisting hardship. [...]. The government agency also asserted that many Armenians still cannot afford adequate healthcare as "only one in three persons with health problems applied to a doctor for medical care."

There is also a mounting income gap dividing the rich and poor, as well as Yerevan residents from those living elsewhere. Many rural areas have hardly seen any development since the economic collapse of 1992-1993 [...].

More importantly, the rate of job creation has lagged behind the economic expansion, failing to alleviate the country’s number one social problem -- unemployment. [...].

Nevertheless, anecdotal evidence of increased prosperity is strong. This includes skyrocketing real estate prices, a growing number of cars, shops and other small businesses as well as a construction boom in central Yerevan. [...].

In addition, merchants have adapted to the continuing economic blockades by Azerbaijan and Turkey and the resulting high transportation costs. According to official statistics, the tiny landlocked country has doubled its GDP and tripled exports since the late 1990s. "In five years time people will reflect well when they look back at what has been done over the past five years," Kearney said.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.