Low Inflation Allows Hope for Significant Reduction in Poverty, Says Kerobyan

According to the indicators for the second half of 2023, the unemployment rate stood at 11.7 percent compared to 18.2 percent at the end of 2020. This was stated today by the Minister of Economy Vahan Kerobyan during a press conference summarizing 2023.

Kerobyan expressed hope that the indicators for the third and fourth quarters will show even more improvement. He also presented several positive indicators for 2023.

“In 2022, when we lived in an environment of high inflation and high economic growth, our international partners warned that high inflation could lead to a 40 percent increase in poverty. However, thanks to the government’s preventive or proactive measures, the poverty rate not only didn’t increase but slightly decreased from 26.5 percent to 24.8 percent,” stated Kerobyan.

The minister noted that in 2023 there has been high economic growth and low inflation, which, according to him, allows for optimism about a significant reduction in poverty by the end of 2023. He stated that one of the government’s main targets is to increase the GDP created by one person in one hour to 12 dollars by 2026. In 2023, this figure was 9.6 dollars.