At a discussion today, in Yerevan, regarding Armenia’s current economic situation, Ameria Management Advisory Director Tigran Jrbashyan said that the construction, the wholesale and retail trade, and real estate sectors are in crisis.

Jrbashyan stressed that Armenian government must pay primary attention to capital expenditures and monetary policy.  

He added that the tourism sector has also been hard hit by the coronavirus epidemic and that the downturn will be felt for a long time.

Jrbashyan emphasized that the government must pay special attention to capital expenditures and that the decline in construction in the private sector today should be replaced by the activation of state-funded construction, capital expenditures.

"We need to be more active in monetary policy. It is a disgraceful situation when the country is in crisis, the rise in consumer prices is at a minimum, close to zero, but we do not use anti-cyclical monetary policy. These are the two crucial points that we must pay special attention to today,” Jrbashyan said.

The economist also noted out the problem of tax collection.

He said that while the government does not publicly declare the drop in taxes to be of any real concern, in the first six months of this year (January-June 2020), taxes collected have dropped by about 6% compared to the same periods last year. This problem is resolved in other ways: the state debt is increased.