YEREVAN. – The Republic of Armenia 2019 budget revenues will not be overfulfilled by 40bn drams, as I had announced, but by 62bn drams, or by $129 million more. Nikol Pashinyan noted this at Wednesday’s major press conference on the occasion of his one year in the office of Prime Minister.

He began listing the achievements recorded over the course of this one year, adding that he has “backup” facts, too.

Some of these achievements which Pashinyan presented are as follows:

State budget revenues grew by 25% in the first quarter of 2019. Taxes and duties were 21.8% of the GDP in the first quarter, which is a 1.3% improvement from 2017. The 120bn-dram debt of the government to the taxpayers was paid. The government has returned $300 million to businesses. A total of 51,000 jobs have been taken out of shadow economy, and some of them are newly created jobs. The number of conscripts serving combat duty has dropped by around 700, and they have been replaced by contract servicemen. A total of 136 new modern video surveillance cameras have been installed along the country’s borders. Armenia has started the process of procuring Su-30SM fighter jets. The salaries of 209,000 people have increased as a result of an amendment to the law on accumulative pension. Treatment of malignant tumors is free of charge. The number of tourists visiting Armenia has increased by more than 10%. Over 20,000 private entrepreneurs have been registered in 2018, and this is 5,400 more than the previous year’s indicator. The government debt/GDP ratio dropped by 2.3% in 2018, as compared with the previous year. Armenia jumped up 19 places and ranked 61st in the Press Freedom Index; and from the respective ranks of “partly free” countries, it joined the list of “free” countries. An ex-president of the country and several other senior officials are defendants in criminal cases. Systemic corruption has been surmounted in Armenia, and the oligarchy is deprived of levers of influence on government decisions. There are no political prisoners and politically persecuted persons in Armenia. The number of arrivals in Armenia has surpassed the number of departures from the country by around 15,000 in 2018, and this is a first within the past ten years. Number of Armenian nationals seeking asylum in EU countries has reduced three times. In the first three months of this year, the number of returnees to Armenia is 2,500 more than the number of those who have departed from the country. Economic monopolies have been eliminated. The number of prisoners has reduced, an amnesty was declared, the institute of parole has begun to operate, and the number of visitations to inmates has doubled. A total of 35 murders were recorded in 2018, and this is the lowest number since 1980. Loans increased by 16%, deposits—by 11.8% in one year. The Prime Minister of the country has appeared before court as a witness, and this is unprecedented. The number of officials’ service vehicles has dropped by 239. As of May 2018, the damage caused to the state by corruption crimes amounted to about 89bn drams, of which 32bn drams have been restored.