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Aghanbekyan: Armenia Steps Into Stagflation Phase

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  • Aghanbekyan: Armenia Steps Into Stagflation Phase

    AGHANBEKYAN: ARMENIA STEPS INTO STAGFLATION PHASE

    ARKA
    Feb 17, 2009

    YEREVAN, February 17. /ARKA/. Stagflation process is starting in both
    Armenia and Russia, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences
    Abel Aghanbekyan said.

    This process implies reduction and stagnation of the production along
    with growing unemployment and high inflation, the academician said.

    "The worst thing for Armenia and Russia in the crisis period is
    that both countries came to it with a high inflation," he said at an
    anti-crisis management round-table discussion on Monday.

    According to Aghanbekyan, it is hard to find a way out from
    stagflation and the first thing to be done under these conditions
    is to suppress the inflation. There are prerequisites for it both in
    Armenia and in Russia, as wholesale prices are going down, inflation
    can be precipitously reduced if monopoly trends are scotched, the
    academician said.

    According to the academician, for this development "the government
    should put the lid on its own desires, which has not been done by
    the Russian executive authorities, and that was a blunder".

    Having raised the prices by 25% the Russian government gave a
    no-price-reduction signal to monopolies: despite the three-time fall
    in oil prices, the reduction was only 15% in Russia, Aghanbekyan
    said. Currently the prosecutor's office is conducting an investigation
    to establish the companies that use overpricing and shift the crisis=2
    0 hardships onto consumers, he said.

    The academician expressed hope that this will not be the case with
    Armenia.

    Yet, all the governments are the same - they want high taxes and
    resort even to such unpopular measures under crisis as boosting of
    state prices is, Aghanbekyan said.

    A 9% rise was recorded in consumer prices in Armenia in
    January-December 2008 against January-December 2007.

    GDP is planned to total 4trln 169bln Drams in Armenia in 2009 with
    real GDP growth at 9.2%, deflator at 4% and inflation at 4±1.5%.

    4% inflation was recorded in the country in January this year
    against January last year. Prices went up by 1.2% in January against
    December 2008 mainly due to seasonal fluctuations in prices for main
    foodstuffs.
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