2024-07-08 17:27:55
At today’s government session, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan addressed the citizens of Armenia, announcing that the social situation in Armenia is getting complicated.
“But we must know that the whole world is in the same situation, the world is at an unprecedentedly high stage of inflation, and you can find out and see the reasons for this by looking at the content of the news channels at any time. And Armenia is still in a good position in this sense, compared to many, many countries. What is the government’s policy in this regard, it was seen in 2019, when especially food prices were increasing all over the world, and Armenia was one of the few countries in the world where the opposite was happening: food prices were falling. Because we eliminated artificial monopolies, and today Armenia is a free country in the sense of imports and exports, and as a result of the measures taken, the prices of a number of important products in Armenia do not rise, in fact, they will not rise, in some cases we have reductions. I hope that in the near future we will also have discounts on other products,” said Pashinyan.
He noted that they understand that they have to implement a policy that alleviates social problems and they do it as much as possible, as much as the country’s budget allows, which is formed at the expense of the taxes we all pay.
“And how we collect taxes is shown by the data of 2021, the most critical year for us, when the tax revenues of the state budget exceeded the planned by about 147 billion drams. And if we take into account the additional revenues received without legislative changes, about 110 billion drams. In general, after 2018, our budget tax revenues increased by about 35 percent, as I promised during the non-violent, velvet, people’s revolution.
Of course, there is speculation and sometimes criticism that we are raising the salaries of law enforcement officers and not raising enough and still not raising pensions. Yes, but there are two things to consider. First of all, it is one thing to increase the salary of 500 people, 5000 people, even 20,000 people, it is quite another thing to increase the pension of 550,000 people or the salary of 600,000 people. They are completely different budget expenses, moreover, these expenses are not one-time, they must be implemented forever. And, of course, we are doing everything possible to implement our pre-election promises and, the pre-election doesn’t even matter, the necessary vital decisions before the day,” he said.
According to Pashinyan, salaries in the law enforcement and judicial system are raised primarily for the sake of the ordinary citizen, because the law enforcement officers have a relationship with the fate and rights of these people, and then the quality of the work of these systems also depends on the state of the country’s economy, in general, law, law and legitimacy.
“In any case, dear compatriots, you should know without a doubt that as before, today even more so, all your pains are in our hearts, all your needs are in our minds, all your dreams are in our souls.
Regarding the economy, I also want to talk about optimistic news. It should be noted that we have good grounds for maintaining economic activity. According to the data of the first 20 days of March, for example, the number of cash register transactions in Armenia increased by about 510,000 transactions compared to the first 20 days of March last year, and money circulation increased by 60 billion drams, which is more than 120 million dollars. Of course, this is not a fundamental indicator, but it is a certain positive impulse, which is related to the fact that in 2022 we have a large influx of people to the Republic of Armenia, and this will create quite good economic effects.
It is also significant that we have an absolute record of 646,077 jobs registered in February, which is 10.3 percent more than in 2021, and 12.7 percent more than in 2019. The same applies to the average salary: the average salary of employees registered in February 2022 is AMD 223,235, which is 9 percent more than in 2021, and 25.3 percent more than in February 2019. I want to remind you that 2019 was our best year, and the comparisons are with that year. But I also have to say that, unfortunately, the socio-economic situation is not the biggest challenge facing our country,” Pashinyan said.
The Prime Minister said that we are now at the most cross-sectional point in the history of the Third Republic, a point at which the Armenian statehood has been precisely located more than once.
“And in order for us to be able to reach the desired conclusion from that same historical point, we need unprecedented flexibility, a completely non-emotional state. We need new thinking formulas. And we have to bring our ship, our boat, to a peaceful haven in this stormy geopolitical ocean. And I am sure that we will do it, and that is perhaps our historical mission,” said Prime Minister Pashinyan.