Armenia's economy suffers less than of Baltic countries

PanARMENIAN.Net - Unlike many CIS countries Armenia has not had shock absorbers, others have: provident funds, mining and raw materials. "Such countries like Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan have had large accumulations, enabling them to cover their budget deficits," Tigran Davtyan , Finance Minister of Armenia told a press conference on Friday.



Armenia, as he said, has not had these opportunities, and from this point of view the country has been in much more vulnerable position to the global crisis. Nevertheless, according to Tigran Davtyan, the global crisis greater affected more open and developed economies like Kazakhstan and Russia.



On the other hand, countries with small economies have been also affected largely. "The global crisis has had the greatest impact on Baltic countries, registered 20 per cent decline in economies, "the minister of finance said. According Tigran Davtyan, the situation in these countries in terms of socio-economic and fiscal stability is significantly worse than in Armenia, although like Armenia they have small and open economies, lack mining resources, raw materials and funds. "In these countries, governments were forced to reduce budget spending, in particular, cut social programs (salaries, pensions), and the banking system had faced serious problems," he said.