The 2010 draft budget is not in line with the Government-announced anti-crisis measures, Artsvik Minasyan, a Parliament member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF), told reporters.

The budget “lacks a strategy”, lower GDP, a 30% decrease in transfers and an unfavorable export situation being evidence thereof, he said. According to Minasyan, the budgeted 2.8% inflation rate is unrealistic, and Armenia’s foreign debt – 41% of GDP – poses a threat in terms of “right spending of funds” rather than in terms of the amount.

The situation would not be so grave if the country’s economy were independent of the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA). Minasyan does not rule out the Government’s “serious intervention” in the AMD exchange rate next year – the Government may return to a fixed exchange rate. “The Armenian economy was paralyzed after Tigran Sargsyan left the post of CBA Chairman and was appointed Prime Minister,” Minasyan said. He stated that the Premier’s statement on the end of economic decline is “untrue.”