Lusine Vasilyan
Public Radio of Armenia
The social security expenses in 2015 will make 385.6 billion AMD, or 29% of the total budget expenditures, which means a 23.5 billion increase as compared to 2015.
The growth is mostly connected with the increase of the expenses for wages, Deputy Minister of Finance Pavel Safaryan said during budget discussions at the joint meeting of the National Assembly’s Standing Committees on Social Affairs and the Financial-Credit and Budgetary Affairs.
From January 1st the minimal wages in Armenia will rise to 55 thousand AMD instead of current 50 thousand. The average pensions will also rise from 36 to 41 thousand.
It’s hard to say to what extent the changes will improve the poverty indices, Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Artem Asatryan said. According to the most recent estimates of the Statistics Service, the poverty level stands at 32%.
