YEREVAN, November 23. /АРКА/. Armenian households’ consumer expenses shrank 7% in the second quarter 2009, compared with the same period a year earlier, the World Bank said in its preliminary study on poverty in Armenia and social consequences of the global recession.

Lire Ersado, a senior economist at the World Bank, said that consumption decline was mainly recorded in healthcare services and purchase of constant commodities.

He said that households started using cheaper foods, reduced their expenses for medical services and purchase of medicines, their visits to amusement centers and relatives and friends became rare, but instead they started using transport more intensively.

However, Ersado expressed satisfaction at the fact that despite such a situation, children keep attending schools, as before, and no outflow of children from schools has been recorded in Armenia.

The World Bank’s study showed that poverty in Armenia grew 2.8 percentage points from 25.6% in the second quarter 2008 to 28.4% in the same quarter of 2009.
Extreme penury doubled in the country from 3.6% in the 2nd Q 2008 to 6.9% in the 2nd Q 2009. -0--