Finance Minister Vahe Hovhannisyan stated during a joint parliamentary committee session that increasing pensions at present would worsen living standards for retirees. His comments came in response to opposition criticism that the ruling Civil Contract party has failed to fulfill its pledge to raise pensions in line with the minimum consumer basket by 2026.
“If we increase pensions today to match the food basket, which would create certain instability in our fiscal environment, it would be bad policy. I believe the same pensioners would end up worse off than they are now,” said Hovhannisyan, as quoted by Panorama.am .
This statement was a direct reply to MP Tadevos Avetisyan from the Hayastan faction, who reminded the government that their 2021–2026 program promised to:
- raise the average pension to the level of the minimum consumer basket,
- set the minimum pension to match the food basket, and
- raise the minimum wage to 85,000 AMD.
Avetisyan noted that 2026 is the final year of that program, and none of these promises have been met. He said the average pension is currently around 50,000 AMD—rising to only 55,000 AMD with bonuses—still well below the 82,000 AMD minimum consumer basket threshold.
“You haven’t fulfilled your promise. Was it populist from the start, just to win the votes of 700,000 to 800,000 citizens? Or are these growth figures you’re showing us inflated, and that’s why you can’t deliver the social pledges?” he asked.
Hovhannisyan responded that the social sector has seen the highest growth between 2021 and 2026. He also emphasized the government's successful debt reduction strategy, bringing debt below 50% of GDP, down from over 60% in 2021.
But Avetisyan argued that pensioners and the working poor remain neglected.
“They're asking a simple question: 'Why was I forgotten? Why don’t I get a pension equal to the minimum food basket?'”
He concluded by saying that success in other sectors doesn’t excuse the government from failing to keep its promise to the country’s most vulnerable 40%.
“You’re paving roads, raising public sector salaries. Great. But that doesn’t mean you can ignore your promise to the poorest part of our population and try to explain it away with complex terminology,” the MP said.
