YEREVAN, April 29. /ARKA/. The official rate of monetization of Armenia’s economy doesn’t reflect real things at the money market because shady dealings are commonplace here, Bagrat Asatryan, a former chairman of the Central Bank of Armenia, said today.

According to the central bank’s report, monetization of Armenia’s economy has risen 11.9 percentage points since 2007 to 33.8% in 2012.

Experts recommend a 70-to-80-percent monetization rate to transition economic saying such a rate is needed for supporting the necessary growth and balance between inflation and GDP growth.
Asatryan thinks the monetization rate was growing very slowly in Armenia throughout the last years and finds the current monetization rate quite low.

“A higher monetization rate would give more opportunities to Armenia,” he said answering ARKA News Agency’s question.

Asatryan said that shady dealers prefer dollars. It gives grounds for speaking about far higher levels of dollarization than those reported by official sources.

“Annually, inflow of private transfers to Armenia exceeds $1.5 billion, according to official statistical reports, the same amount arrives, as stated by the Central Bank, from non-official sources,” he said. “Thus, we have about $3 billion.”

Asatryan points out that the shadow turnover of cash dollars exceeds 1 billion, and this figure will be growing year over year. He believes immense shadow turnover hinders improving economy monetization in the country.

In general, according to the expert, monetization growth rates in the states like Armenia should outpace nominal GDP growth rates. In that case only, it is appropriate to talk about successful economic development.

According to the National Statistical Service, Armenia’s GDP grew 7.2% in 2012. -0---