By Azernews

By Rashid Shirinov

The deplorable situation in the Armenian economy and society continues for many years, but the country’s government still is not capable to fix it. The situation has got to the point that the Armenian government now openly acknowledges its failures.

“The wages are not growing, at the same time there is inflation, and the situation is deteriorating,” said Mikael Melkumyan, Vice-speaker of Armenia’s National Assembly, at the meeting of the Committee on Health and Social Issues on October 20.

Indeed, the wages in the country are not growing, but rather falling down. Significant decrease in salaries is being observed throughout Armenia, in both public and private sectors of employment. Meanwhile, the prices for goods and services in the country continue to go up, and this hits ordinary Armenians.

Melkumyan further added that the political assessment of the state budget is negative.

“If there is no growth of salaries and pensions since 2015 in this country, it is natural that the political rating should be negative. People want progress and their income to grow,” he noted. “If we add the existing inflation to this, it is natural that the situation is getting worse.”

The Vice-speaker further spoke about the youth unemployment in Armenia and noted that it exists in Europe too, but there are jobs in Europe and no applicants. “But we have no jobs,” he acknowledged.

Unemployment remains one of the main problems of the Armenian society for many years. Although the trend keeps growing, the Armenian government still fails to fight the problem. This year, the unemployment rate in the country already hit 19 percent of the economically active population.

With every hundred new workplaces, several hundred of them get closed, and as a result, more than 200,000 of economically active people in Armenia are now unemployed, and this is just the official data, which can be forged.