REVALUATION OF ARMENIAN DRAM INCREASES NUMBER OF POOR POPULATION
ARKA
19/09/2007 16:24
The revaluation of the Armenian dram increases the number of poor
population in the country, said Doctor of economic sciences, member
of the Central Election Committee from the oppositional "Heritage"
Party Zoya Tadevosyan within the seminar-discussion "Conduct of dram:
economic and political reasons and consequences."
"The revaluation of Armenia’s national currency leads to hard
social-economic consequences: the level of poverty reached 40% and
goes on increasing, trust of world partners is gradually decreasing,"
she said.
Tadevosyan pointed out that poor population of the country mostly
suffers from the revaluation of dram, because currency transfers to
Armenia are intended mostly for these layers.
"If earlier the exchange of USD towards AMD equaled 580 drams, now
it is 340 AMD for 1 dollar, though the rate in the state budget is
set in the volume of 357 drams," she said.
She added that the revaluation of dram leads to super-profits of
importers that "block" Armenia whereas the Armenian exporters cannot
go to the world market.
According to the research of households conducted in 2005, the
poverty in Armenia was at 29.8% (in 2004 – 39%) and the level of
extreme poverty – 4.6% (in 2005 – 7.2%).
>From the beginning of 2007 the Armenian dram revaluated towards USD
by 6.61% (by nominal average market rate) from 363.5 AMD to 340.96
AMD for $1 as of September 18, 2007. The revaluation of dram in 2006
was 23.85%.
The Center for National and International Studies organized the
seminar-discussion.