YEREVAN, December 7. /ARKA/. Policy of CB Armenia regarding national currency before crisis was very harmful for the Armenian economy, said well-known economist Abel Aghanbekyan in his interview to the newspaper “168 hours”.

The fact of re-assessment of national currency brought to the fact that it became not advantageous to deal with industry in the country.

“Many branches of economy “went out” from Armenia. Diamond processing was well-developed in the country. Armenia could have become a center of diamond processing. It was even planned to establish diamond stock exchange in Armenia but it did not take place due to currency rate”, said Aghanbekyan.

As a solution he is suggesting to maintain this monetary-credit policy when the industry could be advantageous and import could be substituted by local products.

“When import prevails export, negative balance appears. Private transfers can not cover even the half of this deficit. Finally, increase of import will bring to debt increase of Armenia”, he said. –0—