ArmInfo. Economic experts of the Luys Foundation expressed disagreement with the data of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who at yesterday's government meeting noted that real wages in the country increased by 6.3% in 2022.
According to experts, in 2022 the growth rate of nominal wages accelerated, but in the context of high inflation, real wage growth was rather low, and in the public sector it was completely negative. The average monthly nominal wage in the economy as a whole increased by 15.5% in 2022 compared to the previous year, amounting to 235,576 drams. In the private sector, it increased by 19%, amounting to 256,733 drams, but in the public sector, it grew quite low, by 4.3%, and amounted to 186,940 drams.
Luys experts believe that the situation is becoming more alarming when the indicators are considered not in terms of nominal, but in terms of real average monthly wages and average inflation recorded in Armenia in 2022. So, in 2022, along with wage growth, a fairly high inflation rate of 8.6% was recorded. Under these conditions, the growth of real average wages in the economy as a whole amounted to 6.4%, in the private sector - 9.6%, while real average wages in the public sector decreased by 4%.
Summarizing the abovementioned, as Pashinyan mentioned, "after removing the inflation effect", in general, the average real salary in the Armenian economy has indeed increased, but this does not apply to the public sector salary.
Average real wages in the public sector decreased by 4%. In other words, in 2022, a significant decrease in the standard of living of a significant part of Armenia's employees was recorded, about 30% of which are teachers, doctors of state institutions, employees and others.
