ArmeniaNow According to economic analysts who reject the government’s claims of recovery, Armenia is still in a crisis phase.

Economist Ara Nranyan, a member of the oppositionist Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF, Dashnaktsutyun faction) says that the Government of Armenia has never carried out an anti-crisis policy.

“The reason is that the economic model formed in Armenia has alienated the anti-crisis tools from the government, passing them to the State Commission for the Protection of Economic Competition of Armenia (SCPEC), Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) and the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA),” Nranyan said at a discussion called ‘”Price rises: world inflation, Armenian monopolies”, organized by the Civilitas Foundation.

Former Foreign Minister of Armenia, and Civilatas founder Vartan Oskanian, says that Armenia is still in the phase of crisis, and the government has no idea how to get out of that phase, because the executive body lacks the skill of making predictions.

Other experts who were present at the discussion shared the opinion that the recent decision of the government over inflation curbing is unproductive.

According to economist Samvel Avagyan, the program (of curbing inflation) copies a Russian program, and it cannot be effective.

“The Central Bank is the institution which is responsible for price formation. The uncontrollable inflation is not the fault of the Central Bank, but it is rather the fault of the legislation, which granted the Central Bank with such functions. It is necessary either to change the legislation or punish the Central Bank all the time in order to settle the issue,” Avagyan said.

According to oppositionist economist Bagrat Asatryan, former head of CBA, not only the Central Bank but also the government bears responsibility for inflation; the latter, however, “has washed its hands of it and stepped aside.”

According to the National Statistical Service of Armenia, during the first two months of 2011, about five percent inflation was registered in Armenia, as for consumer goods – more than six percent inflation.

Within the last year, general cost of living rose by more than 12 percent, moreover, prices of provisions rose by almost 19 percent, and prices of agricultural products – 40 percent.