ArmInfo. The Armenian authorities' main goal for pensioners is to ensure they live a normal life on their pensions. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated this during a campaign in the village of Aragats in the Aragatsotn region.
According to him, in 2018, the minimum pension in the country was 16,000 drams; today it is 46,000 drams, meaning pensions have almost tripled in eight years. Back then, as Pashinyan noted, a pensioner couldn't even afford the minimum food basket (MFB) on their pension, which was almost twice the minimum pension. The political force that came to power in 2018 initially doubled this amount to 32,000 drams, but this was still insufficient to meet the minimum wage. In 2023, it became possible to align the minimum wage with the minimum pension. Today, as Pashinyan noted, the average pension already corresponds to the minimum consumer basket, meaning that in addition to food, pensioners can now purchase some household items. This, the head of government continued, represents a significant and very significant change.
Pashinyan noted that, according to the Civil Contract party's election platform, if inflationary pressures affect the average consumer basket, financial resources will be indexed to the extent that price increases are recorded. This, the prime minister noted, is necessary to maintain average pensions. However, if the opportunity arises, pensions themselves will also be increased, and this requires working and spending the money earned with a governmental mindset. "I've said it many times and I'll repeat it: ask for cash register receipts when making purchases. Today, many problems in the country have been resolved, including by significantly reducing shadow transactions," Pashinyan noted. He added that over the past eight years, Armenia's state budget has received an additional $6.6 billion, which, before the revolution, was funneled into the pockets of certain individuals. During this period, the Zangezur Copper and Molybdenum Combine alone contributed an additional 300 billion drams to the state treasury, significantly more than in the previous eight years. Thus, the state budget's capacity was gradually expanded, resulting in an additional 70 billion drams allocated for pension increases in 2026. The Prime Minister recalled that the mansion of former RA Finance Minister Gagik Khachatryan was recently sold in the United States, and the process of returning these funds to Armenia is currently underway, with Armenia receiving 60-70% of the total sale price. Many territories stolen from the people were also returned to the country's citizens.
"The three-headed war party (the Strong Armenia, Prosperous Armenia, and Armenia bloc parties) constantly claims that the allegedly returned stolen funds are nowhere to be seen. We have returned and will continue to return what was stolen, but what's most interesting is that not a single one of their programs mentions the return of the stolen funds. In other words, they are trying to close the door on this topic. Almost all the leaders of the three-headed mafia are currently facing legal proceedings with their property and embezzled funds. Robert Kocharyan, Serzh Sargsyan, and others are currently in court," the prime minister said, recalling the situation with Prosperous Armenia party leader Gagik Tsarukyan, whose son is on the run (in Belarus - ed.) for committing a crime involving the use of a weapon.
Pashinyan also spoke about the mandatory health insurance system, which began operating at the beginning of the year.
