Yerevan/Mediamax/. Armenian former Prime Minister, member of the oppositional Armenian National Congress (ANC) Hrant Bagratyan said today that the facts on economic growth voiced by President Serzh Sargsyan during his speech at the session of the ruling Republic Party on March 10 “don’t comply with the reality at all”.

According to Hrant Bagratyan, the President’s assertions on the growth of state budget on a yearly basis are not correct as the absolute level of state budget was published without taking into account inflation.

“The revenue share within the state budget made AMD 848bln instead of AMD 852bln in 2011. The Ministry of Finance failed to comply with the state budget not by AMD 4bln but the whole AMD27bln as the inflation made 7.7% instead of the upper limit of 5.5%”, said Hrant Bagratyan.
 
Commenting on what has been said the former PM asked: “Budget is the salary of a person. Did you salary increase of decrease if it makes USD 100, was increased up to USD 150 and prices grew by USD60?”

Hrant Bagratyan expressed the confidence that the Armenian authorities aren’t interested in the growth of living standards. “We reached up to the point that further growth of living standards isn’t acceptable for authorities. It’s only possible only in case of democratization- it will lead to forming of an economically independent citizen and the authorities aren’t ready for it yet”, said the former PM.