A "serious challenge"

Roger Robinson, a senior World Bank official based in Yerevan, praised Armenia's macroeconomic performance on 14 January, but cautioned that the government faces a "serious challenge" in combating widespread poverty. Robinson noted that the 12-year poverty-reduction plan adopted by the government in August, which seeks to reduce the poverty rate to 19 percent by 2015, is a priority in the World Bank's new four-year "country-assistance strategy" (CAS), which is due to be approved in March. According to government statistics, the economy is projected to continue to expand, although more than one-half of the population lives below the official poverty line and unemployment remains high. There have been some indications of increased job creation. Last year's record-high GDP-growth rate of 15 percent was attributed in large part to expansion in the construction sector stemming from a multimillion-dollar cash infusion from the Armenian diaspora. That investment is widely believed to have accounted for a full 6 percent of the country's GDP growth last year.