YEREVAN, November 9. /ARKA/. A second wave of the global financial crisis would have a dramatic impact on the amount of money transfers sent by Armenian labor migrants to their families home, Tatul Manaseryan, head of Alternative think-tank, told reporters Wednesday.
According to the latest data of the Central Bank of Armenia, individual remittances to Armenia in September this year sent via banks increased by 13.9% ($22.2 million) year-on-year to approximately $180.7 million.
Tatul Manaseryan said a second wave of crisis would also lead to job losses in Armenia and decline of exports.
“The rise in prices of goods and services at world markets will affect Armenia as our exports exceed imports by a factor of 3.7,” he said.
According to the National Statistical Service of Armenia, Armenia’s foreign trade in January-September 2011 surged by 16.6% from a year earlier to 1.461.2 trillion drams in current prices or about $3.9 billion. Exports totaled $969.7 million and imports $2.979.5 billion.
According to Manaseryan, Armenia has sufficient internal resources to cushion potential threats in case of another crisis.
“If we are able to accumulate these resources and provide them to entrepreneurs on more favorable terms, we could stop borrowing money from international lending organizations,’ he said.
According to him, in order to counter the second wave of crisis the country needs to focus increasingly on high-techs, take care of the technical re-equipment, and create free economic zones. -0-
