Minister blames poverty on people who 'prefer sitting on couch and receive assistance from abroad'

YEREVAN, December 26. /ARKA/. Armenian Economy Minister Vahan Kerobyan believes that when it comes to improving the quality of life much depends on the people themselves.

"Many of our fellow citizens who don't have jobs, but receive some assistance from their relatives abroad often prefer to keep on receiving this assistance rather than look for a job, because if they go to work, they will probably get the same amount, but it will not be assistance but a wage. People prefer to sit on the couch and get help from relatives," he told reporters in parliament on Monday.

According to the minister, this kind of approach is a serious obstacle to people to look for work, especially against the backdrop of growing money transfers from foreign countries.

'The authorities are trying to do their best to distribute the economic output generated by all working people so that the most vulnerable groups manage at least not to worsen their quality of life,' he said.

Earlier, Kerobyan said in an interview with Radio VAN that there were 100 thousand vacant jobs in Armenia, mostly in such areas as construction, industry, agriculture and services.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said earlier this month that "for the first time in the history of the Third Republic (since 1991), the number of officially registered jobs exceeded 700,000 to 701,451.' Pashinyan stressed that some 153,462 jobs have been created since May 2018 - an increase of 28%.

In early December, Labor and Social Affairs Minister Narek Mkrtchyan stated that Armenia saw its unemployment rate drop to 13% in the second quarter of 2022 from 14.5% in 2021.

According to him, there were 50,400 officially registered unemployed in the country, which was 8,000 less than in 2021.

At the beginning of this year, according to official data, the poverty rate in Armenia stood at 27%. -0-