YEREVAN, September 25. / ARKA /. A former Armenian prime minister, Hrant Bagratian, now an MP from the oppositional Armenian National Congress (HAK), accused the government of manipulating numbers while presenting a report on 2011 budget execution to the parliament, a semi-weekly 168 Zham (168 hours) says.
The report was presented at a joint meeting with several standing committees of the National Assembly “The impression from prime minister Tigran Sargsyan’s words is that the last year the government recorded excellent results in almost all segments, except for construction,” the newspaper quotes Bagratian as saying.
In comments on the figures presented by the prime minister Bagratian says, “The most important thing is that the government has admitted to failing to execute the budget. According to my calculation, by 7.5%, although the officials cite lower figures. ”
Bagratian then argues that 2011 inflation was 7.7 percent, while according to official data, it was 4.7%, while personal incomes of the population, according to official data, increased by 5.9%. This, according to the MP means that people were worse off by 1.8% compared to the previous year.
“The government uses a method for calculating inflation as a result of which our people are better off. However, by manipulating the numbers one can not give people a better life,” Bagratian says.
When presenting the budget execution report Tigran Sargsyan described the relating policy last year as ‘balanced, based on the continued and gradual reduction of the budget deficit.’
According to the prime minister, tax revenues in 2011, including social payments, when compared to the previous year, increased by 11.1% and the ratio of taxes to GDP improved by 0.4 percentage points, reaching 20.6%. The budget revenues increased by 12.9%. According to Central Bank governor, Arthur Javadyan, economic growth 2011 more than doubled when compared to 2010 to 4.6%. -0-
