We decided at the previous government session that pensions should be increased by at least 3,000 drams at this stage. After this decision, there were several cases in the provinces where our dear grandmas and grandpas approached me and said that their pension is increasing by 1,900 drams. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated this at Thursday's Cabinet meeting of the government of Armenia.

"We had a discussion, and found out that we have the following situation that for 95.7 percent of pensioners, the [monthly] pension is increasing by at least 3,000 drams as of September 1, but there are 6,400 pensioners for whom the pension is increasing by 2,500 drams according to the current formula, and for 5,300 people, it is increasing by 1,900 drams. We will make an additional decision for our beloved 6,400 and 5,300 pensioners, so that everyone's pension will increase by at least 3,000 drams as of September 1, as we talked about," added Pashinyan.

In his turn, Narek Mkrtchyan, the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, explained that in order to resolve this problem, it was decided that the basic monthly pension in Armenia shall be increased to 31,600 drams.

"This year, we had changed the basic pension from 28,600 drams to 30,500 drams. And in this case it will become 31,600 drams, whereby it will be guaranteed that all our pensioners will receive those 3,000 drams at least," he said.

And Pashinyan added that they need to make sure that there is no pension lower than the amount of the minimum food basket in Armenia.