PRESS RELEASE January 4, 2006

Heritage Foundation, Wall Street Journal Study Upgrades Armenia’s Economic Freedom Index Ranking

The 2006 The Heritage Foundation/Wall Street Journal Index of Economic Freedom ranked Armenia No. 27 out of 161 countries of the world, up from No. 43 in 2005 rankings. The annual study by the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal cited progress in Armenia’s government 2005 track record on economy, including fiscal policies, foreign investment climate, wages and process, government intervention and informal market (corruption) scores in assigning a total score of 2.26 and ranking Armenia as ‘mostly free’ economy.

Armenia ’s ranked higher than most economies of Eastern and Central Europe. Its economic freedom score is considerably higher than that of any CIS country or any of its neighbors. Thus, Georgia is ranked #68, Turkey #85, and Azerbaijan #123 in the same study.