YEREVAN, January 14. /ARKA/. Armenia’s economy can no longer afford to depend on private money transfers, Vardan Bostanjyan, an economist, said Wednesday at a news conference.

“Armenia’s economy had long existed thanks to injections coming from remittances, which produced an illusion of certain stability and welfare,” he said.

The past year’s developments, he said, showed that directions of the Armenian economy’s development need some correction.

Bostanjyan is convinced that first of all industry should be developed and a special emphasis should be put on mining industry.

“Today this segment of industry dominates the budget revenue, but our policy in this area is extremely primitive – we load trains with ores and send them to other countries,” he said adding that it would be better to make final products from these ores.

“Armenia produced electric devices, cables and radio electronic equipment in 2015, and in market economy settings we pushed into the background some promising segments of our economy,” he said.

The economist also pointed out that development of small and mid-scale businesses should not be ignored, since they generate 65 to 70% of GDP in developed countries.
“SMEs create the middle class,” he said.

The Central Bank of Armenia says around $90.8 million came to Armenia in November 2015 as individual noncommercial money transfers. This amount is 22% less than that of November 2014.

According to the central bank’s figures, remittances from Russia to Armenia totaled $68 million in November 2015 showing a 28.4% year-on-year decline and 20% month-on-month decline.

Transfers from Armenia shrank as well – by 25.5% and 30% respectively to $13 million. ---0---