Armenia one of most vulnerable countries to crisis

/By AzerNews/

By Laman Sadigova

The fall in the Russian ruble has had a crucial impact on the national currency of Armenia as the country's economy is heavily dependent on its northern giant.

The cost of dollar hit 71.28 rubles on the Moscow Stock Exchange on Monday, 2.18 rubles above Friday’s level.

The Armenian dram depreciated 2 percent against dollar on August 21; and this is just the beginning. The global crisis has affected Armenia’s country-nurse, Russia, so seriously that the ruble is unlikely to rise to its former levels in the near future. And this means that Armenia – a country whose aggressive policies has led to disaster and isolation from major regional projects – has no hope.

Armenian economists claim that the Armenian dram will not be able to avoid devaluation, Regnum reports. The collapse of the ruble is a severe blow both on the Armenian economy and to ordinary citizens.

What has complicated the situation further that the Armenian government lacks any real plans or resources, whilst its unwise policy puts the country in a difficult and permanently unstable situation steeping it in domestic and regional problems.

The entire population of Armenia assumes the consequences of the Russian crisis and the government is doing absolutely nothing to rectify the situation and to revive economic growth. This is not surprising since the economic competence of the Armenian regime is only a dream.

Whatever happens in the Post-Soviet area, no matter how the situation changes, one thing remains unchangeable – Armenia, as a country can only exist as a parasite, hiding behind a powerful country.

Russia’s economy is now shrinking because of the ruble's instability and the occurring crisis in the country. However, the ruble is not the only currency to face crisis. Almost all of the currencies of emerging markets are falling at this turn of world economic "development".

Meanwhile, Armenia's dram, judging by 2008-2009 figures, is very vulnerable to the global processes. In 2009, it gained status as the second worst recession of currency in the world at 14 percent.

Armenia faces the threat of getting stuck under the ruins of the Russian economy, and it has done nothing to actively avoid it.

Moreover, Armenia continues to act as the political and economic appendage of Russia and justifies its actions against the West with "objective reasons," in an attempt to scrounge money to ease the current economic burden. The West, however, provides financial help to Armenia for a number of unclear reasons, a “game” that will hardly last any longer. What the country really needs is a political and economic reformation – a new government that will do something to rescue the country from a deeper economic crisis than it is suffering from now.

In the last few days, the Armenian dram has been devaluing smoothly and the process gradually has begun to arouse mass panic. The situation is only worsening in the background of many other problems occurring in the country, such as unemployment, an electricity tariff price hike, corruption, migration, social degradation, and conflict with Azerbaijan over its illegal claims to its neighbor's territories, among others.

The Armenian government has left its own country all alone in front of a very possible revolution on grounds of a deep economic crisis, an unstable political situation, and frequently alternating domestic political forces. Obviously, the government has tried to garner the people’s attention with red herrings, such as changing the country’s Constitution and by organizing a “hunt” for corruption, when everybody knows that corruption stems from the government itself.