Author: Chakrian Hovsep

71% OF RESPONDENTS: ARMENIAN ECONOMY ALREADY STRICKEN BY GLOBAL RECESSION

ARKA
June 29, 2009

YEREVAN, June 29. /ARKA/. On Monday, Armenian Marketing Association,
summarizing the results of the survey held in April, said: "71%
of respondents are convinced that the global recession has already
struck at the country’s economy".

The Association says this figure has grown trice since the previous
survey in November 2008 (22%).

Only 20% of respondents against 47% in November think the crisis will
impact Armenian economy.

Five percent of surveyed citizens (against 18%) expect a partial
impact and three percent (against nine) think Armenia will manage to
avoid adverse consequences of the global crisis.

The association surveyed 1,082 residents of Yerevan, provincial
centers and villages were surveyed.

Armenian Marketing Association, a member of Eurasian Monitor, was
established by a group of marketing experts in 2002.

The necessity to establish this NGO emerged because of precipitous
competition growth on Armenia’s market.

The company was established for improving quality of marketing
consultations and analyses.

The Association’s mission is to establish ties among Armenian marketing
companies, to provide trainings to marketing experts and intensify
cooperation between Armenian and foreign organizations and develop
marketing institution in Armenia.

Trend, Azerbaijan
June 27 2009

OSCE to monitor contact line between Azerbaijani, Armenian armies
27.06.09 12:10

Azerbaijan, Baku, June 27 /Trend News/

On June 30, monitoring will be held on the contact line between
Armenian and Azerbaijani armed forces near Khoka Nabi village of Tovuz
region, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry told Trend News. The
monitoring will be held after a mandate by the special envoy of the
OSCE chairman.

The monitoring will be held on the Azerbaijani side by OSCE
Chairman-in-Office Personal Representative field assistants Anjey
Kasprshik, Pieter Ki and Jaslan Nurtazin.

The monitoring will be held on the opposite side, which the
international community recognizes as Azerbaijani territory, by OSCE
Chairman-in-Office Personal Representative field assistants Imre
Palatinus, Irji Aberli and Vladimir Chountulov.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988
when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan
lost all of Nagorno-Karabakh except for Shusha and Khojali in December
1991. In 1992-93, Armenian armed forces occupied Shusha, Khojali and 7
districts surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan and Armenia signed
a ceasefire in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – Russia,
France, and the U.S. – are currently holding the peace negotiations.

ARMENIAN CHURCH HISTORY INVOLVED IN UNESCO NEW EDITION

Noyan Tapan
June 26, 2009

ANTELIAS, JUNE 26, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The UNESCO published
a valuable edition recently, entitled "Cultural Aspects of Christian
and Islamic Religions."

According to the information from the Antelias Patriarchate, the
History of the Armenian Church is given an important place in the book
published in the Arabic language. The Commission on International
Relations of the Catholicosate of Cilicia, particularly, Commission
member Jean Salmanian assisted publication of the book.

RA DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER TAKES PART IN ANNUAL OSCE CONFERENCE ON SECURITY

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
26.06.2009 20:24 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ RA deputy foreign minister Arman Kirakosyan on
June 23 took part in the annual OSCE conference in Vienne devoted
to security problems. Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov made
a speech at the conference. Armenian deputy foreign minister made
presentations at the conference. As Arman Kirakosyan particularly
stressed during discussions, tt the core of the Nagorno Karabakh
conflict is the right of nations to self determination and ensuring
the security of the people of Nagorno Karabakh, press office of the
ministry of foreign affairs of Armenia reports.

G-8 BACKS TURKEY-ARMENIA TALKS

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
26.06.2009 23:06 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ A declaration published by the G-8 foreign ministers
in Italy’s Trieste city made a referral to Turkish-Armenian relations
on Friday. The declaration included evaluations made by the G-8
ministers. In their declaration, the G-8 ministers touched on the
"Caucasus" and said that they appreciated Turkey’s and Armenia’s
efforts to normalize relations, AA reported.

MEETING OF FOREIGN MINISTERS OF ARMENIA AND AZERBAIJAN UNDERWAY IN PARIS

ArmInfo
2009-06-26 15:51:00

ArmInfo. Meeting of Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan Edward
Nalbandian and Elmar Mammadyarov and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairmen
Yuri Merzlyakov Russia), Matthew Bryza (USA) and Bernard Fassier
(France) is currently underway in Paris.

Tigran Balayan, Spokesman of the Armenian Foreign Ministry Press
Service Department for Media, told ArmInfo the meeting started
approximately at 4:00 pm Yerevan time at the French Foreign Ministry.

ARMENIAN TEAM TAKES 8TH PLACE AT EUROPEAN ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

Noyan Tapan
June 25, 2009

YEREVAN, JUNE 25, NOYAN TAPAN. On June 24 the Armenian team returned
home from the 1st European Athletics Team Championships held in
Sarajevo. The 25-member team of Armenia competed with 14 teams in
Group 3 and took 8th place.

As was reported previously, long-jumper Vardan Pahlevanian became
the winner with a result of 7.82 meters. Haykanush Beklarian competed
successfully in triple jump: with a result of 13.07 meters she took 2nd
place and surpassed her own record of Armenia by one centimeter. Aram
Davtian of the city of Artashat was third with a result of 1 min
51.97 sec in the 800 meter running race.

HAGUE ABOVIAN CULTURAL ASSOCIATION 25

Noyan Tapan
June 24, 2009

HAGUE, JUNE 24, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. RA Minister of Diaspora
Hranush Hakobian sent a message of congratulation on the occasion of
the 25th anniversary of foundation of the Abovian Armenian Cultural
Association acting in the Netherlands, appreciating the activity of
the association.

The Abovian Association was founded on June 19, 1984, in the city of
Hague, the Netherlands.

According to information from Hague, on the occasion of the anniversary
the association organizes an Armenian film festival, cooperating
with the Hague Filmhuis Den Haag and Yerevan Golden Apricot film
festivals. The festival to start on October 22 will present the way
passed by the Armenian cinematography. Some books are to be published,
as well.

During the past 25 years the Abovian Armenian Cultural Association
made the cultural life of the Armenian community in the Netherlands
interesting by organizing weekly meetings and courses of the Armenian
language, history and culture, events, publishing periodicals.

The Abovian Cultural Association has always been on good terms with
NGOs and cultural organizations of Armenia and Diaspora. Companies of
actors and individuals have been repeatedly invited to participate in
the cultural programs. Students, sportsmen, scientists also visited
the cultural center.

IMF: ARMENIA’S ECONOMIC DOWNTURN NOT TO SURPASS DOUBLE-FIGURE

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
24.06.2009 18:25 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenia’s economic downturn will not to surpass a
two-digit number, Ninke Omes, IMF permanent representative to Armenia
told a news conference today. "According to our estimations, the
economic downturn in Armenia will not surpass 10 per cent annually,
in particular, it will be around 9.5 per cent, " she said. However,
there is some uncertainty conditioned by the global economic crisis
and that showing can be higher or lower.

Over the last 5 years the economic downturn in Armenia reached a
double-figure, 15.7 per cent compared to the same period of last
year. According to Ninke Omes, this sharp downturn has been conditioned
by the small size of the Armenian market and a 56 per cent decline
in the construction industry.

Saying that an average annual inflation in Armenia will reach 3 per
cent, Ninke Omes particularly mentioned, that "inflation rate is lower,
than we expected".

As it was expected, devaluation of the national currency in March
negatively affect the economy and inflation will icrease, but it is
not happened. "Reduction of the world consumer demand and the domestic
demand in Armenia enabled to curb the inflation pace, therefore prices
for some imported goods even reduced," Ninke Omes said.

According to her, some positive trends are noticed, related to
increase in world prices for copper and molibdenium, which will
positievly impact the Armenian economy. On the other hand, growth
in oil prices positevely influence the Russian economy, which will
result in an increased money inflows from Russia, tangibly reduced
in a global crises.

ARMENIAN TRADE BALANCE REMAINS DEEP THROUGH MAY AS EXPORTS DIVE
Venla Sipila

World Markets Research Centre
Global Insight
June 22 2009

Armenia’s external trade gap remains worryingly deep. Indeed, according
to the latest customs-based figures published by the country’s National
Statistics Committee quoted by ARKA News, exports from Armenia during
January-May plunged by 47.8% in annual comparison, amounting to 76.4
billion dram ($208US million). Over the same period, imports totalled
374.8 billion dram, falling by just under 30% year-on-year (y/y) and
bringing the trade deficit for the first five months of the year to
298.4 billion dram. In particular, May saw exports falling by 15%
in month-on-month (m/m) terms, while imports decreased by 16.2%
from April.

Significance:As the continued sharp contraction in exports is
accompanied by an increasingly sharp fall in imports, deterioration
of Armenia’s eternal trade balance has started to decelerate. Then
again, at around 35% of the estimated GDO, the trade gap remains
deep enough to signal marked external financial vulnerability. The
trade deficit is translating further to a deep current-account gap,
the financing of which with non-debt-creating means is challenging in
the current international environment with still tight liquidity and
weak growth. Financial stress is also greatly exacerbated by the fact
that remittance inflows, especially from Russia, have clearly fallen,
as the Russian economy is also struggling with a deep downturn. Then
again, Armenia’s external risks stemming from the depth of the
external financing gap are mitigated by the fact that its access to
concessionary financing remains relatively good, as demonstrated by
its recently approved International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan facility
(seeArmenia: 9 March 2009: ). However, the country still remains in
urgent need of additional financing, and has applied for additional
foreign loans (seeArmenia: 21 May 2009: ).