Revaluation of armenian dram increases number of poor population

YEREVAN, September 19. /ARKA/. The revaluation of the Armenian dram increases the number of poor population in the country, said Doctor of economic sciences, member of the Central Election Committee from the oppositional “Heritage” Party Zoya Tadevosyan within the seminar-discussion “Conduct of dram: economic and political reasons and consequences.”

“The revaluation of Armenia’s national currency leads to hard social-economic consequences: the level of poverty reached 40% and goes on increasing, trust of world partners is gradually decreasing,” she said.

Tadevosyan pointed out that poor population of the country mostly suffers from the revaluation of dram, because currency transfers to Armenia are intended mostly for these layers.
“If earlier the exchange of USD towards AMD equaled 580 drams, now it is 340 AMD for 1 dollar, though the rate in the state budget is set in the volume of 357 drams,” she said.

She added that the revaluation of dram leads to super-profits of importers that “block” Armenia whereas the Armenian exporters cannot go to the world market.

According to the research of households conducted in 2005, the poverty in Armenia was at 29.8% (in 2004 – 39%) and the level of extreme poverty – 4.6% (in 2005 – 7.2%).

From the beginning of 2007 the Armenian dram revaluated towards USD by 6.61% (by nominal average market rate) from 363.5 AMD to 340.96 AMD for $1 as of September 18, 2007. The revaluation of dram in 2006 was 23.85%.

The Center for National and International Studies organized the seminar-discussion.–0--