Grant Thornton International’s Armenian member on Wednesday presented to the media in Yerevan the results of the organization’s International Business Report (IBR) for 2008, which reviews 34 economies of the world, including Armenia, with insight into the views of more than 7,800 privately held businesses across the countries in question.
While the report predicts a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth in Armenia at about 10 percent this year mainly due to a continued impressive performance of the construction industry, it also foresees that the growth will slow down a bit in 2009 and drop to the level of 8 percent.
Inflation, the report indicates, may exceed the projected level of 4 percent and amount to up to 7 percent in consequence of the rise in international prices for oil and basic foodstuffs that Armenia imports.
“The gap in imports and exports in Armenia continues to remain rather large, which is a matter of concern,” says IBR representative Gurgen Hakobyan, adding that the correlation of enterprises geared to export and import is about 30 to 70.
PS: Armenianow.com website had been experiencing difficulties over the past month. At least on 2 occasions I encountered a “domain suspended” message when accessing the site. Today, seeing my favorite news website back on track again, I called them and asked, if the site is back for good, or should we expect more downtime? An ArmeniaNow person informed me, that all problems with the hosting provider are solved and the site will be functioning without any more problems. Good to know!
Artur Papyan
Journalist, blogger, digital security and media consultant