Pensioners Today Live 22% Worse Than in 2018: Bagratyan Presents Statistics

Recent statistics from the last five years show that pensioners today live 22% worse than in 2018. This statement was made by economist and former Prime Minister of Armenia, Hrant Bagratyan, during a briefing with reporters.

“Poverty has increased by about 15%, extreme poverty has almost doubled, and this is a phenomenon— a country that has received 7-8 billion in aid, I’m not saying all of it went to pensioners, but a significant part of the population tied to foreign transfers has become poorer,” Bagratyan noted.

Commenting on the government’s announcements regarding the recorded economic growth in the country, Bagratyan pointed out that several factors are at play here. First of all, there is a significant volume of exports and imports from Russia, which contributes to economic growth, but does not increase the budget. The second factor, according to him, is the large number of Russians who have come to Armenia.

“120,000 Russians have come, but 11,000 have already returned. They brought with them a total of 8 billion, half of which has already left, the other half is on its way out, but the banks' credit portfolios have increased, allowing banks to issue loans to both developers and future homebuyers. Pashinyan is bringing people from the provinces to empty the republic, saying, 'Come, here’s a loan, and you’ll get a house,' meaning the phenomenon exists, but the people continue to become poorer,” emphasized Bagratyan.

He stated that the dram has been unnecessarily devalued, while about 32% of the population lives on money coming from abroad, and this segment of the population has also become poorer.

While the salaries of state employees have increased, primarily in the form of bonuses, the incomes of those working in business have also risen to some extent. “But we have an absolute deterioration in the situation of pensioners, as well as people dependent on transfers. The number of these people, whose situation has worsened, is much greater than the number of those whose situation has improved. On average, people live worse than they did in 2018,” the economist stated.

It should be added that Hrant Bagratyan, alongside several former and current political figures, intellectuals, and analysts, attended a court session related to the case of Grigori Khachaturov.