Big economic hole deepens in Armenia's budget

/By AzerNews/

By Laman Sadigova

The Armenian parliament could not display a positive mood while discussing the public budget during it regular sitting on November 3, since the economic forecast for 2016 remains pessimistic.

The government said that the upcoming year will be even more difficult than 2015, without elaborating on the reasons.

The constant lack of money has, in fact, tortured the Armenian population, whilst the official statement about 2016, indeed, sounded like a disaster for them. The people of the post-Soviet country lost their last hope for a better life in 2016, not to mention even their lack of having the slightest trust in the authorities.

The bad news appears amid the sharp gap between the poor people and rich authorities. While people in this country are starving and desperately leaving their country, state and government officials live in large houses purchased through nefarious ways.

Armenia, indeed, has no economic model or future economic plan, but preserves its aggressive policy towards Azerbaijan and other neighboring countries.

The country needs to first rid itself of the criminal oligarchy and to draft a normal economic model of state to improve the current deplorable situation the nation is in. That would bolster an atmosphere creating a competitive environment and assuring the quality of goods.

A lack of any opportunity to survive drives people to seek better lives abroad. Most likely, the authorities have no desire to change anything and improve life here.

Silence among all, along with shortages and problems, seems to be the best way to hold on to state power in Armenia, where poverty is increasing year after year and the public debt is nearing 50 percent.

Armenia’s foreign debt has increased by roughly 300 percent over the past seven years, to 46.6 percent of its 2015 gross domestic product of over 4.5 trillion drams ($9.63 billion).

In fact, the reasons for the economic crisis in Armenia are so obvious that they do not need to be discussed – as the government simply robs the pockets of its people.

The one and only sector that is prospering in Armenia is the corruption among the authorities and those who have power. The size of the average bribe in Armenia is growing from year to year.

Transparency International, the organization that is engaged in corruption research on a global scale, publishes frequently negative reports about Armenia.

The Anti-Corruption Council, supported by the European Union and the United States Agency for International Development, formally began operations at the end of July 2015.

It was initially supposed to include opposition and civil society members, as well as government officials in its ranks, but no one from the opposition or non-governmental organizations has joined because of skepticism about its credibility.

However, the Armenian authorities are not showing much effort in solving this problem. In fact, why do they need to change anything if the economic crisis sidesteps them?