YEREVAN. - Russia knows very well that the EAEU has failed as an economic initiative, and all that is left to do is to use political and military force to keep the EAEU members under its influence.
Armenian economist Ashot Yeghiazaryan told the aforementioned to Armenian News – NEWS.am, commenting on the Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement on that Armenia’s GDP has grown by 10 percent since Armenia’s accession to the EAEU.
“I think that if no mistake has taken place, the publicizing of this data has a political pretext which aims to show that by acceding to the EAEU, Armenia has achieved progress in the economic sphere: Armenia’s economy has grown, even when Russia’s economy hasn’t. I also think that one of the aims of that announcement was to show that Armenia shouldn’t try to decide on leaving the EAEU and choose another direction, namely Eurointegration,” the economist said.
According to Yeghiazaryan, this index doesn’t correspond to reality.
“Armenia has joined the EAEU since 2 January 2015. Even if we suppose that the economic indices of 2016 have also been considered, there is no 10 percent growth. According to the last year data of the National Statistical Service (NSS), the economic growth made up 3 percent. I also checked the EAEU website, where 3.5 percent index was mentioned, and apparently 10 percent index is out of the question,” he said.
At the same time, the expert noted that even last year’s 3.5 percent growth published by the NSS has noting to do with Armenia’s accession to the EAEU or Armenia’s economic ties with Russia.
“Generally, the factors conditioned by the EAEU have negatively impacted our economic growth. The export to Russia and the direct investments from Russia to our country reduced last year, all this having a negative impact on our economic growth. According to the data published by NSS, the agriculture had an impact on our economic growth thanks to the favorable climate conditions. The external debt which increased by over $590 mln USD also had an influence. These factors aren’t conditioned by Russia or EAEU. The main sources of external debt are western: loans provided by the EU, western banks and companies, which had a positive influence on our economic growth,” he concluded.
