The Russian press, to put it mildly, does not often write about the successes of post-revolutionary Armenia. “Gazeta.ru” has broken that tradition. Under the headline “Economic Miracle: How Armenia Overtook Russia,” the Russian paper published an article summarising the results recorded by the economies of the EAEU member states.
According to official data, all five EAEU countries recorded positive results, but the difference in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth is striking, writes the article’s author. Among the EAEU countries, Armenia recorded the highest growth; the paper noted that in the first 9 months of 2019, Armenia’s economy grew by 7.5 percent compared to the same period the previous year, by comparison — during the same period, Russia’s economy grew by 1.3 percent.
The forecast for the full year, which Armenia’s Minister of Economy Tigran Khachatryan has set, will be 7.9 percent. This is the highest result not only within the circle of Eurasian countries. Armenia could be the best in the Black Sea region, leaving behind Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine and other countries.
The fight against corruption, the creation of understandable rules of the game for business, and a transparent banking system are positively affecting investors’ plans, “Gazeta” quoted the words of the President of the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank, Dmitri Pankin. Pankin also forecasts that the Armenian authorities’ intention to increase the share of state spending on infrastructure development in the budget from 2.8 percent to 5 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will have a positive impact on the country’s economic development.
What contributed to the “Armenian economic miracle,” if impressive success was recorded neither in industry nor in trade, and growth in the construction sector even slowed to 4.5 percent, and in the energy sector to 2.7 percent, wrote the article’s author, and continued that progress was ensured by the desire of the authorities and society to make the economy transparent.
The Russian periodical recalled that in 2018 Armenia experienced a political crisis. The new parliament and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan created a Corruption Prevention Commission and organised real oversight over the incomes and expenditures of officials.
Thanks to the uncovering of 346 corruption cases, 105 million dollars were returned to the budget — 7 times more than was returned over the past 11 years for the same reasons.
Citing the Armenian press, the Russian periodical wrote that from Armenia’s budget, which amounted to 3 billion dollars, about 1 billion was being stolen, and another 900 million dollars did not reach the budget in the form of taxes. Due to income from the shadows, tax revenues last year grew by 43.6 percent compared to 2017, and by 20 percent compared to 2018.
Drawing comparisons between the EAEU and the countries of the region, the article’s author emphasised that in Armenia the minimum wage has increased by 20 percent, and medical services for children under 18 have become free, adding that the fact is that Armenia, with a population of three million, has surpassed Georgia and even oil-rich Azerbaijan in terms of per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
