Armenia's poverty and unemployment rates fall as wages rise, finance minister says

Armenia’s poverty and unemployment rates continued to decline while wages increased significantly in recent years, Finance Minister Vahe Hovhannisyan told lawmakers during the presentation of the government’s 2025 budget execution report on Tuesday.

Hovhannisyan said the unemployment rate fell to 12.8% in 2025, down 0.6 percentage points from the previous year. Compared with 2021, unemployment has decreased by 2.7 percentage points.

The minister said the average monthly nominal wage rose by 48.6% between 2021 and 2025, while the number of salaried employees increased by 22.4%.

Consumer prices rose by 14.8% over the same period, a significantly slower pace than wage growth, resulting in an increase of about 30% in real average wages, Hovhannisyan said.

Average inflation in 2025 stood at 3.3%, close to the government’s target level, he added.

According to the minister, wage growth was accompanied by gains in productivity, contributing to broader economic improvements.

“These positive economic developments have also been reflected in poverty indicators,” Hovhannisyan said.

Armenia’s poverty rate declined by 2 percentage points in 2024, while the extreme poverty rate fell by 0.5 percentage points. Compared with 2021, the poverty rate has decreased by 4.8 percentage points and extreme poverty by 0.9 percentage points, he said.