Tag Archives: Armenia

Electricity price to rise in Armenia

FEB. 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) approved a 1.5b dram ($3m) investment in its Soviet-era nuclear power plant Metsamor. Also at the press conference, the PSRC chairman, Shiraz Kirakosyan, said the controversial issue of raising electricity prices would be revisited in April. Last year proposed electricity price rises triggered street protests.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 269, published on Feb. 26 2016)

Hilton opens up in Armenia

FEB. 18 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – US hotel group Hilton opened its first hotel in Armenia, giving the Armenian economy a boost. The Doubletree brand is one of Hilton’s top mainstream brand. The 176-room hotel is aimed at both tourists and business people, Hilton said in a press statement.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 268, published on Feb. 19 2016)

Armenia cuts rates

FEB. 16 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s Central Bank cut its key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 8.5% on Tuesday, its lowest level in a year, to try and maintain inflation. The Central Bank has previously said that, overall, prices for the 12- months to the end of January had fallen by 0.4%, despite a month-on- month rise of 2.2% in January compared to December.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 268, published on Feb. 19 2016)

Inflation pushes up in Armenia

FEB. 8 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s consumer price index rose by 2.2% in January compared to December, the national statistics committee said. The statistics committee said a 5% increase in food prices last month pushed up overall inflation. This is the highest month-to-month inflation increase in Armenia in the past year.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 267, published on Feb. 12 2016)

Armenia’s ex-President receives cancer treatment

JAN. 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s first post-Soviet president, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, had treatment for cancer in a hospital in California, media reported. It had been reported earlier in January that Mr Ter-Petrosyan, 71, had flown to the US for emergency treatment. He had been president from 1991-1998. He was a divisive figure who in 2008, was accused of whipping up anti-government protests that triggered clashes with security forces. At least 16 people died in the clashes when police opened fire on the protesters.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)

Grange builds plant in Armenia

FEB. 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Pakistani firm Grange Power agreed a deal with Armenia over the construction of a 234 MW gas-fired power station near Vanadzor in northern Armenia.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)

Georgia-Armenia sign military deal

FEB. 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia and Armenia signed a defence deal that ministers said should improve training and strategic planning between the two countries. The deal, signed in Yerevan, is probably most important for Armenia which is still officially at war with Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)

Azerbaijani soldier dies in N-K

FEB. 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijani officials said that one of its soldiers had died during a shoot- out with Armenian forces in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. They also said that three Armenian soldiers had died in fighting, a claim that the Armenia backed government of the region denied. A cease-fire between Azerbaijan and Armenia-backed fighters around Nagorno-Karabakh is looking increasingly fragile.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)

Armenia’s population sinks below 3 million

JAN. 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Emigration from Armenia shrunk its population below 3m for the first time since the 1970s, a psychologically-important threshold and a statistic that highlights a population outflow trend across Central Asia and the South Caucasus.

Armenia’s statistics agency said that the population fell in 2015 by 12,000 people to 2,998,600 people — the lowest level since 1977.

It’s also more evidence of a trend which has seen Armenia’s population shrink by 36,000 in the past five years and by 643,000 since 1991 when it became independent from the Soviet Union.

Armenia has large diaspora populations in France, Russia, the United States and across the Middle East. Most of the outflow is driven by people looking to join relatives in these countries and boost their job prospects.

One of the biggest problems for Armenian policymakers is that most of the people leaving Armenia are young and well-educated. This puts pressure on Armenia’s system with its aging population.

In 2013, the government ordered the State Statistics Committee to investigate the causes and results of this declining population.

There has been some inflow into Armenia over the past few years with ethnic Armenians who had previously lived in Aleppo, Syria, fleeing a civil war.

The Armenian government has accepted around 16,000 refugees from Syria.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)

Soldier pleads guilty in Armenia

JAN. 22 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Valery Permyakov, a Russian conscript soldier, pleaded guilty to assaulting and killing a family of seven in the Armenian town of Gyumri last year. The murders triggered anti-Russia protests outside Russia’s military base, its biggest in the South Caucasus, and threatened to damage bilateral relations.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)