YEREVAN, April 10. /ARKA/. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has again argued today in favor of shifting to settlements in national currencies within the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU).

Earlier, in a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin Pashinyan proposed switching to paying for Russian natural gas in Russian rubles. Currently, Armenia pays in US dollars.
Speaking during a videoconference of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council, Pashinyan said EEU member states should accelerate the adoption of measures to significantly increase the share of payments in national currencies when trading with each other.

"I believe that we must strengthen our union even in the face of the coronavirus pandemic and serious challenges of the growing recession,” he said. Pashinyan said EEU should prove its viability during the crisis.

“We must be ready to take advantage of all those economic opportunities that will obviously arise in the post-crisis period,” he said.

On March 16 Armenia declared a 30-day state of emergency to contain the spread of coronavirus. Later, it imposed stringent restrictions on free movement of citizens and banned also some types of economic activity until April 12 inclusive.

As of April 10, 937 confirmed cases of coronavirus were recorded, 149 patients have recovered and 123 people died. -0-