When we arrived in Armenia, the exchange rate bought us 450 Drams for one Dollar. A liter of milk cost 780 Drams, or $1.73.
Today, the exchange rate was 297 to 1, and the price for one liter of milk rose to 830 Drams, or $2.79. That's an increase of 62%, if I have this right. In 18 months.
We used to pay our nanny $450 a month. At the current rate, and with a pay increase to cover the rising costs, it is now $800. We don't want to let her go because she needs the money. But ouch, it hurts. She will also not find a job with Expats that pays equally well. Whoever employs her after us, will fix the price in dollars, and fix it low.
I've heard, from a friend, that the "goal" of whoever-is-screwing-the-economy-around is 280 Drams/$1 by February. Yup, looking good.
We are paid in dollars, you know. This free-fall of the dollar, and the artificial strengthening of the Dram, is costing us more than 50% of our money that we spend here and that's not only milk -- food, pay, gas, heat and electricity, water and natural gas. School fees. (David's school is paid in Drams.) Piano lessons. Repair costs. Tangerines now cost $3.30 a kilo, and they used to be cheap. It's not funny at all.
Ah, I see you've done your homework and you tell me that's what the cost of living allowance (COLA) is for. Well, yes. But the adjustments in COLA are slow, and the pace of government budgeting cannot keep up with the ever-faster dwindling of the dollar in this country.
At least, we know we are getting out next summer. But the average Armenian on the street, with the support net in the US that used to pay for so much of their daily lives, has to deal with it for the unforeseeable future. That is tough luck.
Those people in charge have no moral bone in their body, not one.
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