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YEREVAN FOOD PRICES 'AMONG HIGHEST IN EX-USSR'
By Shakeh Avoyan
Radio Liberty, Czech Republic
Jan 9 2008
The prices of basic food products such as bread and cooking oil are
higher in Yerevan than in the majority of other former Soviet capitals,
an Armenian government official said on Wednesday.
Gurgen Martirosian, a senior official at the National Statistical
Service (NSS), based this assertion on a comparative analysis of food
price indices in the capitals of Armenia and eight other former Soviet
republics, including Russia and Azerbaijan. The data were provided to
the NSS by the Inter-State Statistical Committee of the Commonwealth
of Independent States.
According to those figures cited by Martirosian, Yerevan boasts the
highest retail prices of cooking oil and eggs. Those products cost
less even in Moscow, one of the most expensive cities in the world
and by far the wealthiest place in the former Soviet Union.
Armenia meets its demand in cooking oil mainly through imports, and
government officials could argue that the high cost of transporting
goods to the country pushes up its cost in the domestic market. By
contrast, the bulk of eggs sold in Yerevan stores come from Armenian
poultry farms supposedly competing with each other. Speaking to
RFE/RL, Martirosian could not explain why they are more expensive
than in Moscow and the seven other ex-Soviet capitals.
Only in one of those cities, Kazakhstan's capital Astana, the average
price of bread, a staple food across the former USSR, is higher than
that in Yerevan. The Armenian capital also trails only Moscow as
well as the capital of Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek, in terms of the cost of
butter. In Martirosian's words, sugar is apparently the only basic
foodstuff whose price in Yerevan is close to the CIS average.
The official statistics reflect the increased cost of life in Armenia
which is not confined to food. New research presented by a Yerevan
think-tank last August, for example, concluded that Armenians pay more
for fixed-line phone services than residents of not only neighboring
countries but the United States.
By Shakeh Avoyan
Radio Liberty, Czech Republic
Jan 9 2008
The prices of basic food products such as bread and cooking oil are
higher in Yerevan than in the majority of other former Soviet capitals,
an Armenian government official said on Wednesday.
Gurgen Martirosian, a senior official at the National Statistical
Service (NSS), based this assertion on a comparative analysis of food
price indices in the capitals of Armenia and eight other former Soviet
republics, including Russia and Azerbaijan. The data were provided to
the NSS by the Inter-State Statistical Committee of the Commonwealth
of Independent States.
According to those figures cited by Martirosian, Yerevan boasts the
highest retail prices of cooking oil and eggs. Those products cost
less even in Moscow, one of the most expensive cities in the world
and by far the wealthiest place in the former Soviet Union.
Armenia meets its demand in cooking oil mainly through imports, and
government officials could argue that the high cost of transporting
goods to the country pushes up its cost in the domestic market. By
contrast, the bulk of eggs sold in Yerevan stores come from Armenian
poultry farms supposedly competing with each other. Speaking to
RFE/RL, Martirosian could not explain why they are more expensive
than in Moscow and the seven other ex-Soviet capitals.
Only in one of those cities, Kazakhstan's capital Astana, the average
price of bread, a staple food across the former USSR, is higher than
that in Yerevan. The Armenian capital also trails only Moscow as
well as the capital of Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek, in terms of the cost of
butter. In Martirosian's words, sugar is apparently the only basic
foodstuff whose price in Yerevan is close to the CIS average.
The official statistics reflect the increased cost of life in Armenia
which is not confined to food. New research presented by a Yerevan
think-tank last August, for example, concluded that Armenians pay more
for fixed-line phone services than residents of not only neighboring
countries but the United States.