At today’s debate in Armenia’s parliament regarding the 2016 national draft budget, Minister of Finance Gagik Khachatryan effectively ruled out any possibility of raising the minimum wage.

Rule of Law (OYK) MP Levon Dokholyan had asked Khachatryan about the possibility of raising the minimum wage from the current 55,000 AMD (US$114) per month to 65,000.

Khachatryan said that when the government had the resources to raise the wage it had done so.

“At this stage, we will abstain from any such increase because we don’t have the resources. If we raise the minimum wage, it would cost about 35 billion AMD,” Khachatryan said.