Armenians live in poverty, while crime rate grows
By Rashid Shirinov
Armenia’s National Statistical Service has recently revealed a report “Social Snapshot and Poverty in Armenia, 2015”, which looks at the miserable economic picture of the country.
The records indicated in the report show that the poverty level in Armenia has not changed over the past two years.. Much of the ‘bad’ is found in the employment and poverty chapters, which indicate the employment in Armenia is now the lowest on record.
Despite all the showy attempts of the government to overcome the poverty in Armenia, the situation remains the same. This rise in unemployment has knock-on effects when we look at the number of people with low income.
The Statistical Service gave a whole picture of the doleful situation, noting that 29.8 percent of the Armenian population lives in poverty. This is even more than it was in 2008 – 27.6 percent were poor eight years ago.
In detail, last year the total number of poor in Armenia amounted to some 900,000 people. Meanwhile, the number of very poor (including extremely poor) people was about 310,000, and 60,000 of them were extremely poor, the report states.
The report also contains other interesting facts, most notable of which shows that after the global economic crisis the level of the poorest in Armenia remained at the same level or regressed, while the richest have become even richer.
The general poverty line and extreme poverty line in 2015 were defined at the level of 41,698 drams ($87.1) and 24,109 drams ($50.4) a month respectively. Armenian experts note that such amount is not appropriate for life in Armenia – "they are more likely suitable for not to die".
Also increases in the cost of food, fuel and rent have hit lower-income families harder than others.
Meanwhile, the poverty, paired with violent corruption and unemployment, also forces Armenians to commit crimes and even suicides.
Thus, there were registered 14,237 crimes in the country for the first nine months of 2016, News.am stated. This is a significant leap, considering that in 2015 the figure was 12,827 crimes recorded.
The Statistical Service recorded 59 murders, 26 attempts to murder, 859 cases of intentional infliction of harm, 97 sexual crimes, including 19 incidents of rape or attempt to rape.
The suicide rate is also high in Armenia. Thus, the number of suicides increased by 20 compared to the same period of 2015.
All this shows that the Armenian population is unhappy with the situation in the country, which triggers violations of the law. Maybe that will change when the Armenian government finally fights the corruption and opens new jobs.
However, it does not seem possible as long as the current corrupt Sargsyan regime stays in power.
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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov
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