Sargsyan continues to deceive population by unrealistic promises
By Rashid Shirinov
The foolish remarks of Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, who promised bright future for the nation, still remain a topic for discussion in the Armenian society.
Last month, while addressing the Parliament, Sargsyan said that Armenia plans "to ensure the average annual economic growth of five percent until 2040." Thus, the Armenian President wants to increase the GDP of the country from the current $10.5 billion to about $60 billion. It seems that Sargsyan has forgotten that last year’s economic growth of Armenia made only 0.2 percent, which is quite far from the desired five percent. Almost all sectors of the economy are currently in stagnation, while the Armenian government failed to find a way to change the situation.
Sargsyan also touched upon the poverty rate in the country. He claimed that "Armenia plans to reduce the level of poverty to 18 percent in the next five years, and to eight percent until 2040." This, of course, is impossible in Armenia at least in such a short term. The data of the National Statistical Service of Armenia shows that the level of poverty in the country makes 29.8 percent for the first quarter of 2017. This means that about 900,000 Armenian citizens are poor, of which 300,000 are very poor, and about 60,000 are extremely poor.
Moreover, unofficial Armenian sources note that the real number of poor in Armenia has long ago exceeded one million people. Thus, while one third of Armenians live in poverty, Sargsyan is telling tales about eight-percent poverty rate in the near future.
Apart from the economic devastation, Armenia is at risk of another problem – rapid depopulation. However, the Armenian president is again thinking positively – he announced that "the number of country’s population will reach 4 million in 2040 thanks to a sharp improvement of the demographic situation.”
Even official statistics of Armenia indicate much more negative prospects for the Armenian population. The permanent population of Armenia is currently under 3 million, while non-official figures suggest that the figure is hardly close to 2 million. Since the independence of Armenia in 1991, the population has decreased by almost 640,000 people.
The figures of the National Statistical Service published on April 1 show that the permanent population of the country decreased by 12,900 people since early 2017 as compared to the last year, and by 4,600 compared to the beginning of 2016.
Moreover, the UN has recently forecasted that the population of Armenia will be about 2.7 million people in 2050, which is by 10 percent less than the current figure
The official statistics of the country's economic indicators are enough to understand that the Armenian president is doing nothing but, deceiving the population. The authorities opt to simply make unrealistic promises about the future of Armenia that nobody believes in, including the Armenian government itself.
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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov
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