YEREVAN. – The poverty rate is still high in Armenia, Chorrord Ishkhanutyun daily reported.  

“The NSS [i.e., the Armenian National Statistical Service] has issued the Armenia’s Social Picture and Poverty 2014 Report, according to which the poverty rate in Armenia was 32 percent in 2013, against the 27.6 percent that was recorded in 2008. The number of very poor and the number of extremely poor have grown, too.

“In the report, the more than 14 percent drop in Armenia’s economy as a result of the global financial crisis in 2009 is noted as the cause of rising poverty [in the country]. And although this crisis has long since disappeared, Armenia’s economy has not recovered, and the poverty indicator has not reached the pre-crisis level,” Chorrord Ishkhanutyun wrote.