Prime Minister: Armenia managed to avoid social and humanitarian crisis under the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic

ArmInfo. Armenia managed to avoid social and humanitarian crisis under the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic. On May 6, when presenting the results of the government's activities in 2019, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated.

According to him, it was also possible to ensure financial stability in the country. The development of the situation showed that the government was right about the importance of refusing tax holidays, which could lead to destabilization of financial stability. As of April 20, commercial banks and credit organizations granted 472,000 loan holidays to individuals and 15,000 to legal entities. 768,150 loans to individuals and 16875 loans to legal entities were restructured. As a result, social collapse was avoided.  The financial market quickly recovered after the first days of uncertainty caused by COVID-19. So, after a slight depreciation of the Armenian currency in the early days of the crisis, the situation was corrected, including through the purchase by the Central Bank of the market of about $ 90 million. At the same time, there was no collapse in the market, all food stores continued to function normally, without a shortage of goods. It was also possible to effectively manage inflationary processes. There was a group of goods that went up, but there are also goods that either remained at the same level or declined in price. For example, fertilizers, which are important for agriculture, have risen in price, but diesel prices have fallen significantly, which is no less important for farmers in the country. And here, as the Prime Minister noted, it is very important to ensure balance.

Government policy, as Nikol Pashinyan noted, has led to job growth.  So, as of April 20, 620,905 jobs were registered in the country.  People earned wages by paying income tax. Moreover, in February the number of jobs was 618 thousand, and in the summer of 2019 - 600 thousand. Thus, as Nikol Pashinyan noted, according to the situation at the end of April, the number of jobs increased by 3-4 thousand. As a result, in April the salary fund amounted to 123.823 billion drams against 119.700 billion drams in February.

The head of government also pointed to the situation with utility payments, which many speculated, threatening even the communal revolution. About 5 billion drams were directed by the government to support the citizens of the country in paying for the cost of electricity, gas and water, of which, as it turned out, 2 billion drams were allocated  to the accounts of citizens in the form of prepayments, that is, they were able to pay for services. Moreover, the most solvent were the socially disadvantaged citizens who paid 800 million drams, and 1.2 billion drams were allocated to the accounts of those who did not need them.

The Prime Minister also noted that since the beginning of the crisis, about 70 thousand people have returned to the country, and the issue of their employment begins to gain priority importance for the government. In this context, the construction of 100 educational and health facilities and highways will be launched, on which returning citizens of the country will be able to prove themselves.

Nikol Pashinyan also said that it was originally planned that according to the results of the first quarter, the state budget revenues will increase by 20 billion drams, however, due to the epidemic, these figures were more modest - 9.9 billion drams. The number of beds from 300 was increased to 1,500, another 150 beds will be created in the coming days. 600 hotels for patients with asymptomatic events and 3,300 hotel beds for contact persons were prepared for the reception. About 6 thousand people were isolated during this period.