The average amount of pensions currently stands at around 51,000 drams ($126) per month Pashinian recently touted the fact that it has increased by nearly 22 percent during his seven-year rule. Critics countered that Armenia’s consumer price index has increased by at least 25.3 percent since 2018, meaning that the pensions were worth more in real terms before he came to power.
A bill drafted by the main opposition Hayastan alliance would raise the average pension to the per-capita minimum cost of living in the country from January 2026. The Armenian government currently estimates the so-called “minimum consumer basket” at 61,000 drams. The authors of the bill dismissed that estimate as too conservative.
One of them, Artsvik Minasian, put it at 68,000 drams, citing the World Bank’s calculations. Another Hayastan parliamentarian, Tadevos Avetisian, came up with an even higher figure: 75,000 drams. He said it is based on a different methodology used by the Armenian Ministry of Health.
The bill would also require the government to make sure that the minimum pension, which is currently set at 36,000 drams, equals the smaller “food basket.” The official minimum value of food staples needed for a person’s physical survival now stands at 33,000 drams. The opposition disputes this figure as well.
Minasian argued that the government set the same pension targets in its five-year policy program adopted in 2021.
“Are you committed to your promise or not?” he said during a parliament debate on the opposition bill. “If so, this law must be adopted to make sure that these new rates come into force on January 1, 2026.”
Civil Contract’s representatives made clear that the parliament’s pro-government majority will block the passage of the bill described by them as populist. One of them, Heriknaz Tigranian, insisted that the government will honor its pledge cited by the opposition.
Finance Minister Vahe Hovannisian said late last year that the government now has to spend public money more sparingly due to an ongoing slowdown of economic growth in the country. The slowdown appears to have been instrumental in a major shortfall in the government’s tax revenue recorded in 2024.