At an economic forum held today entitled "Armenia-Weathering the Global Storm", RoA Central Bank Vice-President Vache Gabrielyan noted that the priorities of the Armenian government in this regard include financing of the infrastructure and assisting small and medium size business. "In addition, it is also very essential to preserve our social spending. Till today, we haven't experience any difficulties regarding social expenditures, i.e., the formation of revenues of the populace. Of course, this intends to spur economic growth, by stabilizing consumption," said Mr. Gabrielyan. "We continue to effectively cooperate with the IMF and World Bank. We can expect no less than $1.5 billion from the IMF, WB and Asian Development Bank and more than $2 billion if additional loan from Russia come through," said Mr. Gabrielyan. He said that most analysts predict that the global economy will stabilize by the end of 2009, nut that this doesn't mean that one will see an immediate economic upturn. The CB official sated that the government could maintain current economic levels for the next 1-2 years even though there are core problems with balance of payments. He claimed that the economy would not experience a drop of more than 7-8% over the course of 2009.