On 28 April, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan spoke about the continuation of regular life activities during the state of emergency. “Step by step we must follow this path and the commandant will sign a decision lifting the restrictions on physical training and cycling [no further than their place of residence],“ he said.
He also announced that if the circumstances remain unchanged in the coming 10 days the government would allow all economic activities to be resumed in the county, but only after the Health Ministry puts certain safety rules in place. In his words, for each area, the health ministry will develop safety standards, for example, for restaurants, cafes and manufacturing enterprises. “The education system will continue operating with restrictions,” he added.
Speaking in the Armenian parliament, the Armenian Finance Minister Atom Janjughazyan said that the internal restrictions in Armenia imposed because of COVID-19 lead to a 2–2.4% loss in real GDP. “Supply and demand shocks affect almost all segments of the economy. According to our estimates, internal constraints lead to about 2-2.4% loss of real GDP. As a result, given the estimates of outside and inside shocks, we expect that a 2% economic slowdown will be recorded this year, despite the fact that GDP growth was projected at 4.9%,” he stated.
He also added that the Armenian economy is not capable of absorbing 1.5 trillion drams, which the opposition called for social assistance, and that was why the government-designed incentive programs are worth 150 billion drams. “We can design many programs, but it is necessary to take into account the possibilities of the Armenian economy, which is not able to absorb such a volume of funds. The programs designed by the government are meant to support long-term development,” he said.
The Head of the Bright Armenia opposition Party Edmon Marukyan heavily criticized the way on how the law which introduced the state of emergency in the country was adopted. “You are legalizing what the commandant [Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan] has decided. The commandant had no right to adopt normative legal acts but he did and now you are legalizing it, saying that it acts with transition provisions with retrospective force,” Marukyan said.
He stressed that the commandant had no right to apply restrictions and urged the government to annul the administrative reports formed during this period. “Administrative reports have been formed on over 10,000 citizens for violating the restrictions. Don’t you think these reports must be recalled, be recognized invalid as, in essence, they did not have legal grounds while now you are creating them,” Marukyan added.
The current tally of infected persons in Armenia stands at 1,932, with 30 reported deaths.
