YEREVAN, JUNE 5, ARMENPRESS. The government and the political majority of Armenia have put a task before themselves not to lose the balance in all areas, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at the joint session of the parliamentary standing committees during the discussion of the 2018 state budget performance report.

“It was possible to maintain the macroeconomic stability for two main reasons. Firstly, we should praise the fact that there are certain developed institutions in Armenia which played a role during the period of the velvet revolution and showed that regardless of upheavals they can maintain the normal operation of the state system, this is a very good news. The second one is the essence of the velvet revolution which has been criticized for many times. There are many talks according to which “velvet is too much” in the political changes that have taken place, that the revolution should have been much tougher, of course it could and can be, but the feature is that the government cannot put a task to solve only one problem, because it needs to solve many problems”, he said, adding that if the balance of anyone is violated, that will lead to collapse in other areas.

In this regard the PM assured that the government and the political majority have put a task not to lose the balance in any field.

He highlighted the fact that they are fully committed to the values they have declared during the peaceful democratic revolution. The introduction of the values of this revolution in Armenia has been and still remains a task for the government. Pashinyan said violence-free atmosphere has been created in the country, adding that any manifestation of hatred has no place in Armenia and should not have.

“In fact we have not only overfulfilled the goals of the economic growth put by the former government, but also ours. There were many criticisms last year regarding the goals of the economic growth. And we said that time that the goal is conservative, but, of course, are goals are much more. And I am happy to record that based on this balanced policy we have a 7.1% GDP growth rate in the first quarter. This is not the economic activity index, but the summed up GDP rate”, Pashinyan said, stating that 9.2% growth in economic activity index has been registered in April.

PM considers this a result of a joint work, government-parliament, also with the opposition partners.

He informed that nothing extraordinary have taken place in the digital parts of the budget, there has been a shortcoming in expenditure parts. The expenditures planned for 2018 were impossible to be implemented completely. “This is linked with several problems, including the fight against corruption. Today as well there are major loan projects over which criminal cases have been launched, and we believe the state budget resources, including the loan resources, should be spent maximally effective, and the citizens of Armenia should be confident that they get the maximum efficiency and quality they can expect”, he added.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan