YEREVAN, MARCH 6, NOYAN TAPAN. The appreciation of the Armenian dram has had a negative impact on the development of domestic production, as a result of which in 2008 exports fell by 7.8% to 1 billion 69 million USD, while imports grew by 35% to 4 billion 411.7 million USD. The chairman of the Union of Manufacturers of Domestic Goods Vazgen Safarian expressed this opinion at the March 6 press conference. He said that the floating exchange rate of the national currency will allow developing domestic production. In his words, the state should revise its approaches and stereotypes that prevent the country's economy from developing. According to V. Safarian, the state should regulate and manage the economy. "A policy of shock therapy of the free market economy has been conducted in Armenia in the past two decades. The result is that we have a small group of rich people and a huge mass of those in hard conditions," he said. V. Safarian expressed confidence that it is possible to increase exports about 1.5fold and reduce imports 2fold by taking active state measures.

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