SAA declared a default -
the largest in history - on the government's foreign debt in
December of that year, and abruptly resigned only a few days after
taking office. His successor, Eduardo DUHALDE, announced an end to
the peso's decade-long 1-to-1 peg to the US dollar in early 2002.
The economy bottomed out that year, with real GDP 18% smaller than
in 1998 and almost 60% of Argentines under the poverty line. Real
GDP rebounded to grow by an average 9% annually over the subsequent
five years, taking advantage of previously idled industrial capacity
and labor, an audacious debt restructuring and reduced debt burden,
excellent international financial conditions, and expansionary
monetary and fiscal policies. Inflation, however, reached
double-digit levels in 2006 and the government of President Nestor
KIRCHNER responded with "voluntary" price agreements with
businesses, as well as export taxes and restraints. Multi-year price
freezes on electricity and natural gas rates for residential users
stoked consumption and kept private investment away, leading to
restrictions on industrial use and blackouts in 2007.

Armenia
Since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, Armenia has
made progress in implementing many economic reforms including
privatization, price reforms, and prudent fiscal policies. The
conflict with Azerbaijan over the ethnic Armenian-dominated region
of Nagorno-Karabakh contributed to a severe economic decline in the
early 1990s. By 1994, however, the Armenian Government launched an
ambitious IMF-sponsored economic liberalization program that
resulted in positive growth rates. Economic growth has averaged over
13% in recent years. Armenia has managed to reduce poverty, slash
inflation, stabilize its currency, and privatize most small- and
medium-sized enterprises. Under the old Soviet central planning
system, Armenia developed a modern industrial sector, supplying
machine tools, textiles, and other manufactured goods to sister
republics, in exchange for raw materials and energy. Armenia has
since switched to small-scale agriculture and away from the large
agroindustrial complexes of the Soviet era. Nuclear power plants
built at Metsamor in the 1970s were closed following the 1988 Spitak
Earthquake, though they sustained no damage. One of the two reactors
was re-opened in 1995, but the Armenian government is under
international pressu