YEREVAN. – We have an optimistic indicator: Of the 71,400 jobs closed in April, 50,000 were restored in May. Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Tuesday announced this live on Facebook.

"(…) we became convinced, once and for all, that we must adopt a strategy to live in parallel with the coronavirus because if we focus only on the healthcare aspect, we will not have an economic downturn, but an economic collapse.

Now I am on the air to say that this approach of ours is already substantiating its truth. (…) in May, when we decided not to continue the lockdown policy, 50,094 jobs were restored. By the way, I'm only talking about paid jobs (…).

Today we were discussing with the chairman of the State Revenue Committee, and it was noted that the process of job restoration continues. (…). We must continue this in order to be able to achieve new economic indicators.

(…) we must do the utmost to avoid returning to the lockdown.

The State Revenue Committee data show that the amount of trade is also recovering, and we must maintain this economic pace. First, let's bring back what we lost, and then let's develop a new logic.

I want to believe that the rest of that sector will be restored in June," the PM added, in particular.