Today.Az » World news » No money for pensioners in Armenia
28 December 2015 [20:31] - Today.Az
/By AzerNews/
By Laman Sadigova
The government of Armenia lacks enough money in the state budget to increase pensions.
Labor and Social Affairs Minister Artem Asatryan announced about this, depriving aged people of their hope for better life in 2016.
Thirty billion drams are needed to increase pensions by 15 percent,
Asatryan said, adding that the country’s budget does not have this
money.
The Armenian parliament approved the draft state budget of the
country for 2016 with a deficit of about 3.5 percent. It has left no
hope for social welfare in next year because of its high deficit rate.
Thus, pension will remain the same in 2016, in other words, people
are doomed to hunger and poverty, considering that the economic
situation in Armenia is worsening day by day.
Revenues of nearly 80 percent of Armenian households remains below
the level of the average consumer basket, head of Sociometer center
Aharon Adibekyan said summarizing 2015.
If earlier about 60 percent of households believed their standard of
living is "good", this figure reduced by four at the moment.
The leadership of Armenia frequently barrows money from financial
institutions. However, as opposition assures all the money are
mysteriously vanishing because the government uses them only to maintain
its power.
Armenia’s foreign debt has increased by roughly 300 percent over the
past seven years, to 46.6 percent of its 2015 gross domestic product of
over 4.5 trillion drams ($9.63 billion).
Officials noted that the country's external debt will be very risky
in terms of management if that exceeds 60 percent of the GDP.
In 2016 social spending will amount to 4.4 billion drams, or 7.4 percent of GDP in Armenia.
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