In recent years, the pension in Armenia has always been lower than the value of the minimum food basket. But the members of the Communist Party, who lavishly fill their own pockets with money from the state budget, “realized” only 5 years after the previous elections, that the pensioners given by them cannot even solve their own food issues.

We are not even talking about the minimum consumer basket. The value of the minimum consumer basket is almost twice the pension of a pensioner.

The members of the CP have not recently learned about this. But they remembered the pensioner only before the upcoming elections. For five years, they have not done anything to alleviate the social problems of pensioners, on the eve of the elections they decided to increase pensions and show that they have fulfilled their promise regarding the increase of pensions.

Let’s remind that in the previous elections, they promised to increase the average pension to 61 thousand drams. At the moment, it does not even reach 50 thousand drams. They raised it by only 5.4 thousand drams in five years, before the upcoming elections they decided to increase it by 10 thousand drams at once and announced that they fulfilled their promise.

It doesn’t matter that in the previous 5 years the pensioner was starved, they didn’t even give him a pension equivalent to the minimum food basket. During those 5 years, the social situation of the pensioner only worsened. It got worse not only because the pensions were raised very little, but also because the inflation exceeded the pension increase. Not counting the additional financial burden imposed on the pensioner through the increase of various taxes and fees.

Everyone understands why they decided to raise the pension now. You were an increaser, you would have increased it in previous years so that the pensioners could provide themselves with at least a minimum food basket. Otherwise, they permanently worsened the situation of the pensioner for 5 years, and on the eve of the elections, they became concerned about the pensioner.

Cumulative inflation in Armenia in five years, we are talking about average inflation, was 20.2 percent. 2021 was 7.7 percent, in 2022 – 8.3 percent.

After two years of sharp, cumulative 16 percent inflation, in 2023 only 0.6 percent inflation was recorded.

Inflation was recorded again in the next 2 years. 1.5 percent in 2024, and 3.3 percent in 2025.

During this period, the price of food became much higher. Cumulative average inflation of food made more than 24.4 percent.

In 2021-2022, in just 2 years, food inflation of almost 23 percent was recorded. 2023 There was a 4.8 percent deflation, but food prices continued to rise in the following 2 years. Cumulative inflation in those years was another 6.3 percent.

At first glance, inflation in Armenia has moderated in recent years, the rates of price increases have weakened. But this happened after previous sharp price increases. It is because of these price increases that the inflation rates have weakened in the previous 2-3 years. If we compare today’s prices with 2021 back, we will see that there are significant differences, and these differences have been borne by the pensioners for years. However, the authorities at that time were busy filling their own pockets and did almost nothing to alleviate the impact of inflation on the most vulnerable sections of society.

In the past 5 years, according to official data, the average pension in Armenia has increased by only 12.5 percent. Meanwhile, during that period, cumulative inflation was 20.2 percent, food prices increased by 24.4 percent on average.

The increase in the price of food almost doubled the increase in the average pension.

It doesn’t even make sense to talk about the much sharper price increases of basic necessities, when even the average inflation was much higher than the increase of the average pension. And that means that the living conditions of pensioners have only worsened these years.

After worsening the social condition of pensioners for five years, by increasing their pension by 10,000 drams, they want to deceive their grandparents that they will live better from now on. However, those 10,000 drams will not even cover the effect of the high inflation of the previous period. With that, they may live a little better than last year, which is not yet certain, considering the recent inflation activation, but they will continue to live worse than they did years ago, because the impact of inflation, especially real inflation, is much greater than the increase in pensions.

For five years, they did nothing to at least adjust pensions to the level of inflation, they left this vulnerable social class to become impoverished and bear the heavy impact of inflation, today, before the elections, they started talking about indexation of pensions in the following years. Recently, Nikol Pashinyan announced this within the framework of the party campaign. Until recently, they insisted that pensioners need a pension increase, but they don’t know how to spend the money. Before the elections, they are afraid that they will lose the pensioners’ votes. not only have they decided to raise pensions from April 1, but they also promise to adjust pensions with inflation every year.

He says, “I have made a decision. From 2027 or 2028, every year, the government will make a decision to increase pensions by the rate of inflation.”

If someone asks, why didn’t you raise pensions every year in line with inflation in the previous 5 years?

They let the pensioners suffer for 5 years in order to deceive them before the elections that, in case of re-election, we will index pensions.

You used to do it before, who was holding your hands? You have not done it for five years, now why should the pensioner believe that you will do it later?

HAKOB KOCHARYAN

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