YEREVAN. - American Forbes magazine placed Armenia among the weakest economies of the world, a fact that caused much confusion in the midst of Armenian ruling elite.
During his meeting with journalist in Gyumri the Speaker of Armenian Parliament Hovik Abrahamyan stated that Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan must respond to this information. However the expected response came from the Minister of Finance Vache Gabrielyan. He explained that Forbes estimation is based on indicators for economic growth, inflation and current account deficit for the past three years. Since 2009 saw significant deterioration of these figures, the rating of the country decreased correspondingly.
“I do not mean to say that Forbes rating has nothing to do with the reality, however this is quite snap estimation, which could never linger for the coming year since we register a price fall and economy growth tendency,” said the Minister.
Note that three post Soviet countries appeared in Forbes World’s Worst Economies list- Armenia (2), Ukraine (4) and Kazakhstan (7).