Regular editions of ArmeniaNow will resume January 11.

Over the past decade, real estate prices – starting from a low-point of the post-soviet collapse –have risen up to 10 times, reaching amounts comparable to some European countries.

Most major trade in Armenia is controlled by relatively few tycoons – better described in Armenia as oligarchs. With the dismantling of the Soviet Union, previously non-existent opportunities for personal wealth opened like vaults at a bank for those in place to walk in and take the goods. Opportunists wasted no time in easing, or in some cases muscling, their way into positions of proprietorship that re-funneled the flow of cash from state coffers to their own.

Signs of life changing are as simple as the changed signs on sidewalks, where cafes and restaurants invite residents and visitors to breakfast. Until very recently only hotels and one restaurant, Artbridge, opened for breakfast. Now, others have followed the trend common in the UK and North America – opening their doors as early as 8 a.m. Tiny-cupped Armenian coffee now shares the menu with the brewed variety. Iced tea is available in flavors that include pomegranate, and while service still remains stuck somewhere in transition, it now comes with a 10 percent charge to the bill.

That was then.

Ever thought you’d be able to buy toothpaste for your dog in a food market in Armenia?

This is now.

Reluctance to discuss finances or taxes or inside trade secrets is surely not peculiar to Armenia. Here, though, presumably harmless questions from a reporter are met with resistance, suspicion and often rudeness. Consistent with the situation in politics or virtually any other area, trust between media and the business world is a phenomenon still waiting to happen in Armenia.

In 2005, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) announced that Armenia had regained the GDP rate (meaning the new value created in a given country) it held before the collapse of the Soviet Union. The announcement was met with skepticism by those who wondered how such growth could possibly occur, considering closed factories and closed borders and a railway export system that had rusted from lack of service.

The dollar traded as high as 585 in 2003. By mid-October of this year it had hit 328 – a drop of more than 40 percent and by late October it hit 320, dropping 10 drams (3.3 percent) in one three-day period. Central Bank of Armenia says that the dram’s rise has not peaked.

While the issue of Armenian corruption has garnered a significant degree of scrutiny and study, to what extent is the perception of money laundering in Armenia actually grounded in fact?

Apartment buildings, hotels, offices and retail shops are constructed, renovated, enlarged or redesigned. The face of the city changes with each multi-storied tower – many rising to replace or obscure the skyline imagined by city architect Alexander Tamanian a century ago.