WORLD BANK TO PREDICT CONSEQUENCES OF EXPENSIVE GAS

Lragir.am
30 March 06

The World Bank research on the consequences of the price of natural
gas for the economy of Armenia will be completed soon. This was stated
by the director of the WB office in Yerevan Roger Robinson on March
30. Robinson said they would be ready to consider this issue more
deeply as soon as the WB research is presented to the government
and the latter gives comments. According to the news agency ARKA,
Robinson declined to forecast consequences of the price of gas.

Nevertheless, the representative of the World Bank said the increase
of the price of gas would affect certain branches of the economy
of Armenia but not to the degree as certain people say, said Roger
Robinson. He said the increase of the price of gas would affect the
budgets of those people especially those who use gas to heat their
houses. Robinson also said that recently electricity supply has
been upgraded. At the same time, along with the falling demand for
electricity in industry the demand for gas has grown.

Robinson emphasized that the recent increase of the prices of flour
and sugar are not related to the price of gas.