Armenia is one of the leading countries in terms of Gini index - Finance Minister

YEREVAN, June 15. /ARKA/. Armenia's Gini index, which is used to measure income distribution across different population groups, was 0.27 in 2021, Finance Minister Vahe Hovhannisyan said on Wednesday. . 

"The Gini index is an important indicator, although little is said about it in Armenia. Nevertheless, it characterizes the inequality of the distribution of wealth created in the country between different groups of the population. The index ranges from 0 (or 0%) to 1 (or 100%), with 0 representing perfect equality and 1 representing perfect inequality,' the minister said.

He said by comparison, Armenia's neighbor Georgia's index was 0.34, Sweden's was 0.28 and France's was 0.3.

'Another equally important indicator is the poverty elasticity index, which shows the impact of GDP growth by 1 percentage point on the level of poverty. Thus, the analysis of recent years' indicators has shown that GDP growth by one percent leads to a reduction in poverty by one percent,' the minister said.

"I am sure that after the publication of the poverty index for 2022, we will record its decrease," concluded Hovhannisyan. -0-