Living standard of middle class in Armenia is declining: Norvik experts
2009-03-12 17:55:00
ArmInfo. In the last seven years the living standard of the middle
class in Armenia has been on decline, says the analytcal department of
Norvik Universal Credit Organization.
This may lead to irreversible changes: outflow of qualified specialists
to western countries and economic decline as middle class is the most
active section of the civil society and it is the most
sensitive to changes in the economic situation. Now that Armenia is
facing financial, banking, industrial, commercial and other crises, the
local authorities will hardly provide official statistics on the
incomes of the middle class. Meanwhile, experts say that in the coming
years the revenues of the middle class in Armenia will drop. If they
are right we may face a crisis comparable with the Great Depression of
the 1930s and will need at least five years to overcome the
consequences of the economic decline.
The consumer agiotage observed over the last few years is not so
useful, and now that consumption is abruptly falling, a social shock
will be observed. At the same time, the specialists pay attention to
the poor layers of population as well. They think the state of this
layer’s representatives may become even worse in the process of
economic decline and unemployment growth. At the same time, the experts
think that if the government works out special programs, the state of
this population may develop in a different course. In particular, the
middle class will be formed from poorer layers of population. The
company’s analysts think that to support both the middle class and
poorer layers of population, it is necessary to decrease prices in the
consumer market by increasing competitiveness in the market of
essentials. This will decrease the financial load on home economics and
the inflation level.
To recall, Norvik UCO is the Armenian branch of Latvian-Icelandic JSC
NORVIK BANKA. It was registered and licensed by the Central Bank of
Armenia in July 2006 and has been operating since September 2008.