From Armenia in brief: Poverty increases in Armenia because of global economic crisis

by Maria Titizian and M. T.

Published: Friday November 20, 2009

Yerevan - World Bank surveys show that the poverty rate in Armenia increased from 25.6 percent in 2008 (second quarter) to 28.4 percent in 2009 (second quarter). In real numbers, this means that in Armenia, the numbers of poor has increased by 90,000 people.

These figures were announced by Lire Ersado, a senior economist at the World Bank, on November 17 during a presentation of the report, "Armenia - Poverty and Social Impact of the Global Economic Crisis."

According to Arminfo, Ersado, said that overall poverty would have increased by twice as much as it did had it not been for the mitigation measures undertaken by the government, and particularly the measures to safeguard social spending.

The level of extreme poverty has nearly doubled in Armenia from 3.6 percent in 2008 (Q2) to 6.9 percent in 2009 (Q2), with the number of extremely poor individuals increasing by over 107,000.

These developments are a setback for Armenia after a decade of nearly double-digit growth (which averaged 12 percent in 2001-2007) and reduction in poverty incidence from 56.1 percent in 1998-99 to 23.5 percent in 2008 - a decline of over 32 percentage points in 10 years).