Friday, 25 February 2011
Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan’s Interview to Armenian TV Companies
Most of the questions raised by media outlets bore on inflation and social tensions in the economy.
“There is no such country in the world, inclusive of the developed ones, where citizens can understand the way the central bank deals with inflation,” Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan told the journalists during his latest interview. “We are caught up in a high-inflation stage which may pose serious threats in 2011.”
According to the Prime Minister, commodity prices have been going up worldwide, and in its capacity of importing country, Armenia proves affected by this total price-hike. Nevertheless, there is a second factor of domestic character stemming from last year’s unprecedented 13.5% fall in agriculture which rose up to 40% in a number of sub-sectors. As a result, we had a 9.5% overall increase in the cost of farm products.
“In 2010, inflation was 11.5% in neighboring Georgia, where prices went up higher than in Armenia. Thus, high inflation is not at all an Armenian phenomenon,” the Prime Minister pointed out.
With regard to the problem of corruption in the system of education, anticorruption efforts were said to have been carried out in this area. “The rationale behind our efforts is as follows: easy access for high school applicants and stringent rules for graduates,” the head of government said adding that specific standards should be applied in the system of education. “Government and citizens should meet each other halfway in fighting corruption, though we can see that civil society is a little bit reluctant in the matters concerning corruption,” the Prime Minister stated in this connection.
In his words, objective criticism can only add to the strength of the government and dialog would be highly appreciated in this respect: “I feel that oppositional moods prevail in today’s press,” the Prime Minister said in conclusion.
