Azernews.Az

By Abdul Kerimkhanov

The lies of the Armenian government, led by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, have repeatedly been exposed. However, Pashinyan’s team is in no hurry to draw any conclusions – it continues to lie to the population.

The data, recently published by the Armenian government, says that the inflow of total foreign investments for the first half of 2019 amounted to 705 billion drams ($1.48 billion), while in the same period of 2018 the figure was 558 billion drams ($1.17 billion). Meanwhile, the inflow of foreign direct investments (FDIs) was allegedly 152 billion drams ($319.4 million) in January-June 2019, while in the same period of 2018 it was 126 billion drams ($264.8 million).

However, these figures by the Armenian government are quite doubtful, since the data of the Armenian Statistical Committee on the same indicators is less optimistic.

For instance, in the first half of 2019, the net inflow of FDIs amounted to 7.7 billion drams ($16.3 million). As can be seen, the Armenian government’s data shows a 20-times inaccuracy.

In addition, the data by the Statistical Committee says that in January-June last year, FDIs amounted to 38.67 billion drams ($81.3 million). Thus, this year the indicator decreased by 90 percent, to 7.7 billion drams.

Thus, it is unclear what sources the Armenian government uses when evaluating the state of the country's economy since it has repeatedly published false data. It is strange that having official sources, the Armenian authorities prefer to use non-traditional and false ones. It is also likely that the authorities deliberately present false data, thus lying to the country's population. As a result, the Armenian officials present an alternative picture, which is not reality, rejoicing at what should really disturb.

There are enough reasons for concern for the current Armenian authorities. For example, the fact that during the reporting period, the net inflow of foreign direct investment declined from Russia, the U.S., the United Arab Emirates, France, the Great Britain and Germany.

Meanwhile, the same official sources indicate that the inflow of foreign direct investment from the British Virgin Islands, which is a classic offshore zone, has increased.

The government can delight the public of Armenia with fake figures, but one should rejoice at what is really good. It would be better for the Armenian authorities to use official information provided by the National Statistics Committee rather than alternative sources, the reliability of which is highly doubtful.

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Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94

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