YEREVAN. – In line with the preliminary official data for the first six months of this year, which the National Statistical Service issued, the inflation rate in Armenia was greater than the growth in the average monthly wage, Haykakan Zhamanak daily reports.       

“Accordingly, the inflation rate was 4.1 percent, whereas the growth in the salary was 2.1 percent for the [first] six months [of this year], as compared to the same period last year. And this means that the prices have increased faster than the salary of the people. This in turn means that the people’s standards of living have dropped; the people have become poor[er].      

“[But] it should be worth mentioning that the formal inflation does not include the rise in [the prices of natural] gas and electricity because this [that is, the inflation] refers to the months of January to June of this year, whereas [the] gas and electricity [prices] went up as of July 7,” Haykakan Zhamanak writes.