The draft 2025 state budget for Armenia includes a substantial increase in social protection spending.
As Finance Minister Vahe Hovhannisyan stated during parliamentary discussions on the 2025 budget, 905 billion drams (over $2.3 billion) are earmarked for social protection, marking a 14.9% rise from this year’s allocation.
According to the minister, this increase in social spending is primarily due to adjustments in baseline indicators, rather than major shifts in state social policy.
As a result, the share of social protection spending in the country’s GDP will reach 8.2%, which is 0.6 percentage points higher than in 2024.
Earlier, BMG reported that the 2025 Armenian state budget proposal, recently approved by the government, anticipates a significant increase in both revenue and spending.
The projected state budget revenue for 2025 is set at 2.873 trillion drams (approximately $7.39 billion), which is 11% higher than the anticipated figure for 2024 and 22% above the actual revenue level of 2023.
The expenditure side of the 2025 budget is planned at 3.482 trillion drams (roughly $8.95 billion), marking a 13% increase from the expected 2024 level and 37% above the actual expenditures of 2023.
The budget deficit for 2025 is expected to be around 609 billion drams ($1.57 billion).
