Armenia sees sharp decrease in foreign investments

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has been boasting of his new government's ability to attract foreign investments. But new data from the government are telling another story, Report informs citing an article on Eurasianet.

According to data recently published by Armenia's National Statistical Service, foreign direct investment in the second quarter of 2018 – roughly coinciding with the first months of Pashinyan's term in office – dropped 43.5 percent from the same period the year before.

The drop likely is related to the uncertainty in Armenia, said Artak Manukyan, an economic adviser to Pashinyan.

“This government is temporary and everyone realizes that. By economic standards it’s a risk to invest,” Manukyan told Eurasianet.

U.S. ambassador to Armenia Richard Mills also voiced concern over the situation in Armenia. “Business climate, the investment climate, can be fragile,” the U.S. ambassador to Armenia, Richard Mills, said at a September 5 conference. “And all it takes is one government mistake or a bad law, or a bad decision and investors can be scared away.”