WE ARE OVERCOMING POVERTY THRESHOLD

Panorama.am
18:50 19/09/2007

"For the first time ever in Armenia the average allowance level will
be over the poverty threshold in 2008," Vazgen Khachikyan, chairman
of social security state foundation, told a news conference today. In
his words, next year expenditures in social security will total 171
bln drams and this year they amounted 106 bln.

"We are going to make the base allowance 6800 drams and 1 year work
experience will amount 395 drams. So, the average allowance will
exceed 21,800 drams," Khachikyan said. In his words, if states could
allocate 2 percent of their GDP to allowances, poverty would vanish
from the world.

Khachikyan noted that Armenia has a serious problem of birth
rate. "Unfortunately, our society is listed among the most rapidly
aging societies. It also causes several problems in social security,
especially, that the average life expectancy is high in Armenia,"
the chairman of the foundation said.