ArmInfo.Next year, the current Armenian government's five-year program will come to an end, and it is becoming clear that key promises regarding the socio-economic sphere have not been fulfilled. Tadevos Avetisyan, a parliament member representing the opposition "Armenia" faction, wrote on his Facebook page.
According to him, upon coming to power, the current government promised to halve poverty, eliminate extreme poverty, and ultimately, bring universal happiness and other such fairy tales. The government's 2021-2026 program promised to raise the minimum pension to cover the cost of a food basket by 2026, increase the average pension to the cost of a minimum consumer basket, and raise the minimum wage to 85,000 drams.
"First, let's note that, compared to the first quarter of 2018, in the first quarter of 2025, the monthly cost of the minimum consumer basket per person increased by approximately 17,000 drams, the average pension by approximately 9,000 drams, and the average benefit for a low-income family by 3,000-4,000 drams. At the same time, the public debt has more than doubled, increasing by approximately $7 billion. In fact, over the past seven years, our public debt has increased annually by approximately $1 billion, resulting in approximately 12% of annual state budget revenues (more than $1 billion) being directed toward servicing this rapidly growing debt and paying off increasing interest. The lives of people from socially vulnerable groups, who make up approximately 40 percent of the population, are constantly deteriorating, as social promises are not fulfilled, resulting in a constant decline in their real incomes," the parliamentarian noted.
He added that in 2018, the poverty rate was 23.5%, and the extreme poverty rate was 1%. According to the latest data published in 2023, these figures, instead of halving and returning to zero, increased to 23.7% and 1.1%, respectively. In the first half of 2025, the average monthly pension was 49,000 drams, and the average monthly family allowance was 33,350 drams. Incidentally, the average size of newly assigned pensions is gradually decreasing, paralleling the reduction in length of service. In 2024, it was approximately 43,000 drams. Moreover, approximately 35% of pensioners live in poverty or extreme poverty. About 100,000 citizens with up to 10 years of work experience also receive old-age or disability benefits, with an average amount of 36,500 drams.
"In other words, to fulfill its programmatic promise, the government had to increase the average pension by 30-35 thousand drams next year. The minimum pension should also have been increased by 7-8 thousand drams, since the cost of the food basket reached 44,152 drams in the middle of this year. But in reality, in order to hide the unfulfilled social promises, it is planned to increase the maximum refund amount for non- cash pension payments next year by 4,000 drams at best. The average pension could increase by 1,000 drams if the general promise of a 2% refund is fulfilled. Incidentally, there is no refund for utility bills, which are a significant expense item. In addition, almost half of benefit recipients and pensioners do not actually use this refund. Moreover, the poverty level has remained virtually unchanged, and in 2024 alone, the number of families receiving social assistance benefits has decreased by approximately 11%. As a result of various measures adopted by this government, the number of families receiving social assistance has decreased by approximately 40%, reaching 60,752 families, 65% of whom have children," Avetisyan noted.
He also pointed out the declining targeting of social assistance. The working poor are also recipients of the minimum wage, as their income is less than the cost of even the minimum consumer basket per person. According to the promise, the minimum wage was supposed to increase by 10,000 drams next year. This increase is also not included in the draft state budget for 2026. Negative demographic trends over the past seven years of this government's rule are also very alarming and are primarily the result of the anti-social policies pursued. The sharp decline in marriages, rise in divorces, increase in mortality, including infant mortality, and, of course, the decline in birth rates along with the increase in the emigration rate are recorded primarily for social reasons. Specifically, in January-August 2025, compared to the same period the previous year, the vitality rate-the ratio of births to deaths-decreased by 9 percentage points. The natural increase-the difference between births and deaths-decreased by 32 percent, with the number of births decreasing by approximately 1,400, and the number of deaths increasing by approximately 140.
Additionally, the number of marriages decreased by 14%, while the number of divorces increased by approximately 5%. The death rate of children aged 0 to 4 increased by approximately 10%, and the indicator characterizing the emigration of RA citizens-the number of people leaving the RA-increased by approximately 5,210 people.
