Armenia's economic growth in 2022 is expected to be close to record levels, Economy Minister Vahan Kerobyan said in an interview with the Public Television of Armenia.
According to the National Statistical Committee, Armenia's economic activity in the first 10 months of this year registered a growth of 14.5% compared to the same period in 2021.
Kerobyan said these figures allow having an optimistic outlook for the end of the year. "We should try to register as good a performance as possible," he said.
Asked whether the citizens feel this double-digit growth, the minister said that at the current stage, high economic growth is accompanied by high inflation, which in turn raises the cost of the subsistence basket.
"This means that vulnerable people with low incomes are at risk of being on the other side of the poverty threshold," he said, adding that the government is working to avoid this by raising minimum pensions and wage starting January 1, 2023, and creation of new jobs.
"In 2 years, about 74 thousand new jobs have been created," he said. At the same time, the minister did not rule out that some groups of people "will live worse." "It is possible that some people will lose their jobs," he said, adding that there are some areas where wages have not risen as fast as inflation.
At the same time, according to Kerobyan, in terms of GDP per capita Armenia is becoming a more prosperous country moving closer to such Eastern European countries as Montenegro or Albania.
"In 2020, GDP per capita in our country was about $4.6 thousand, and this year we expect it to be 50% higher between $6.4-6.9 thousand, depending on the figures of the last quarter," he said.
Kerobyan said also that the investment-to-GDP ratio has grown to 18%. "In the first half of the year the investments grew by 51%, gross savings by 51%, and this shows that our effective policy to stimulate investments is bearing fruit. We must multiply our efforts, because our goal is to bring the volume of investment to 25% of GDP," ARKA reports.
