Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian claimed to be delivering on his repeated pledges to carry out an “economic revolution” in Armenia as he presented the first results of his government’s policies to the parliament on Wednesday.
Addressing lawmakers, Pashinian cited official statistics that show continuing economic growth and rising tax revenue. He also said that the government is successfully creating a level playing field for all businesses, easing regulations and breaking up economic monopolies that thrived under the country’s former leadership.
“This means that our model of economic development and economic revolution is working,” he declared in a long speech. “I am convinced that it will work even better.”
Pashinian said it is radically different from the “old model” which he claimed was based on kickbacks paid by most major investors to senior government officials in return for tax evasion. He said this alone disproves critics’ claims that the new government has done little to improve the socioeconomic situation in Armenia since taking office last May.
The Armenian economy grew by 5.2 percent last year, down from 7.5 percent reported by the country’s Statistical Committee (Armstat) in 2017. Preliminary Armstat data released this week indicates that this growth continued unabated in the first two months of this year.
Pashinian singled out a nearly 22 percent increase in construction recorded by the government agency in January-February. He also touted a sharp rise in mortgage lending which he portrayed as proof of Armenians’ “confidence in their own future.”
“These indicators allow us to presume that Armenia is on the verge of a construction boom,” he said.
Pashinian also stressed the importance of double-digit gains in domestic trade and other services. But he did not mention a more than 11 percent drop in Armenian exports registered in January-February.
The premier downplayed the fact that Armenian industrial output rose by less than 2 percent year on year in the two-month period. He blamed the modest figure on the closure in 2018 of two large mining enterprises. They both should resume their operations in the near future, he said.
Pashinian further pledged that as a result of its ongoing efforts to tackle tax fraud the government will collect considerably more taxes than are envisaged by the 2019 state budget. He said the additional tax revenue of at least 40 billion drams ($82 million) will allow it to raise the salaries of schoolteachers and military personnel by 10 percent and repair more than 300 kilometers of roads.
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