Armenia's economy ministry is developing new economic policy
YEREVAN, January 8. /ARKA/. Armenia's Economy Ministry is tasked with developing a new economic policy as part of a set of measures to avoid tax gap, Minister Vahan Kerobyan said in an interview with the Public Television of Armenia.
"We intend to change our economic policy, make it more aggressive, modern, corresponding to the challenges facing Armenia and the world and use new technological opportunities to replenish the budget with taxes," he stressed.
According to Kerobyan, the so-called export-oriented economic policy that has been pursued in recent years has not really been such.
“Our new policy will be aimed at creating a modern economy based on science,” the minister said, adding that he is personally very familiar with the obstacles faced by domestic business entities.
According to him, these obstacles will be removed so that business entities and science, business and education could effectively cooperate, as a result, Armenia will receive an economy with higher added value.
"The government program stimulates freedom of entrepreneurship, promotes the opening of new businesses. We want to simplify the life of business community so that they pay more taxes and do not go into the shadows," Kerobyan said.
GDP forecasts
Kerobyan also shared his forecasts for the growth of the country's economy in the coming year.
“As for 2021, I will not forgive myself if we do not have double-digit economic growth. As for Finance Minister Janjughazyan's forecasts, (who predicted 6% drop for 2020 and 4.8% growth for this year), I would like to note that the Ministry of Finance always lays down a more conservative scenario in the budget, while the Ministry of Economy sets itself more aggressive, ambitious plans. And this is completely normal," said Kerobyan.
Decline in consumption
Kerobyan said also that in the past few months, consumption in Armenia has sharply decreased, caused by the pessimistic public mood. “There is not a decline in income, but a decline in consumption. And the seeming impression of a decrease in savings is wrong, that is, people have money,” the minister said.
Regarding price changes, Kerobyan pointed out that inflation in November-December turned out to be around 2%, which is lower than the projected target. --0--
