PARADIGM
31 May 2017

Hrant Mikaelyan: The Artsakh war was sponsored by shadow economy

25-year-old odyssey of shadow economy in Armenia

 

The Artsakh war was mainly sponsored by the means of the shadow economy. The war is coming to an end, after which the authorities consider it necessary to compensate the invested funds. The scholar of the Caucasus Institute, Hrant Mikaelyan, wrote about this in his recently published book "Shadow Economy in Armenia". Covering the period from the declaration of independence to the present day in his work, the economist Mikaelyan gradually analyzes the volumes and features of the shadow economy.


"Since 1991, there has been an approach that it is necessary to promote the development of large-scale local business, as well as to support the achievement of monopoly and exemption from taxes. In my book, I show when this all was happening,” Hrant Mikaelyan says. He also adds that over the past 8-9 years, the scale of the shadow economy and the number of monopolies have been reduced as a result of political and economic crises, negotiations with the European Union.

The details of the conversation in the program “Paradigm”.