No money for pensioners in Armenia

/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.