Tonight (January 29) Armenian single young adults look for a married woman or a widow to bake a salty cake for them to eat and see their future mate in a dream. It is one of the traditions of St. Sarkis Day.

But the Armenian Apostolic Church states that it is not necessary to eat a salty flatcake in order to merit the blessing of St. Sarkis and the church and to be happy.

The estimations given to the state development program on Armenia’s economy in 2010 by pro-government and opposition representatives are radically different – from hope-inspiringly optimistic to radically pessimistic.

Armenia’s Ministry of Agriculture assures farmers that low temperature and snowfalls that started a day ago will not affect the crops yield in the Ararat Valley.

The institution of Armenia’s Financial System Mediator (founded by the Central Bank of Armenia) which serves as a mediator between financial organizations and individual customers, summed up one year of its activities registering hopeful indexes.

Since January 1, internet subscribers in Armenia have paid tariffs reduced from last year’s prices, due to a drop in wholesale prices on the service coming to the country. For example: Web Am is now offering its subscribers six weeks’ service for the same price that a month previously cost (12,000-36,000 drams, or $32-96).

Specialists say that it is phenomenal that while inflation in Armenia is higher than in, say, Europe, prices for consumer goods here do not grow as much as they do in other parts of the world.

Political analysts in Armenia and Russia say that the visit of Turkey’s prime minister to Moscow and the partly overlapping visit by the Russian foreign minister to Yerevan last week could not have been unlinked.

The year of 2009 was a year full of ordeals for Armenia’s economy, bringing the boisterous growth of the past 10 years to a jarring end.

The appreciation of the Armenian national currency against the US dollar and other major foreign currencies since the beginning of December, according to analysts, is having a negative effect on the population depending on remittances and having main income sources calculated in dollars, while adding additional advantages to importers. Paradoxically, it is admittedly the result of a Catch 22 situation when the Holiday Season rush makes people exchange more, for less, as families stock for the long New Year celebration.

Four-year-old Ani Grigoryan writes a letter to Santa Claus with the help of her mother.

“Dear Santa, I want you to bring pink shoes with feathers, glass beads, and high-heels to me. And I want a sub-machine gun,” Ani concludes the series of her wishes. The last item is a toy. We hope.