Armenia’s authorities continue to operate through short-term, situational decisions and lack a clear long-term strategy. This view was expressed by Avetik Kerobyan, former head of the Military-Industrial Committee. According to him, many government decisions are made in response to immediate challenges rather than within a coherent strategic framework.
New Subsidies Amid a Growing Budget Deficit
Kerobyan referred to the government’s recent decision to provide state support to exporters of agricultural products, mineral water, and alcoholic beverages.
According to him, the decision was adopted without presenting calculations showing the potential burden such a program would place on the state budget.
“It was announced that apricot exporters would receive support and bottled wine producers would obtain additional compensation. However, no estimates were presented regarding the overall cost of the program for the state. This is yet another situational solution,” he said.
Kerobyan believes such decisions are particularly concerning given the existing fiscal challenges.
He noted that even before the emergence of new unplanned expenditures, the 2026 state budget already projected a deficit of roughly one billion dollars, which was expected to be financed through an increase in public debt.
“The plan was to bring public debt close to 16 billion dollars, but now it may become even larger,” he stated.
Defense Research Funding Remains Largely Unused
The former official also focused on spending allocated for the development of the defense industry.
According to him, 1.726 billion drams had been earmarked for military research and development projects during the first half of the year, yet only 428 thousand drams were actually spent.
“During the first four months, spending was zero. Now, according to first-half data, only 428 thousand drams have been spent. Frankly, this figure looks more like a technical error than actual budget execution,” Kerobyan said.
He added that during the same period, salary and bonus expenditures within the ministry had reached approximately 90 percent of planned levels.
Defense Budget Reduced by 1.4 Billion Drams
Kerobyan also stated that three separate government decisions adopted on June 11 reduced the budget of the agency responsible for the defense sector by approximately 1.4 billion drams.
According to his assessment, this represents more than five percent of the agency’s planned 2026 budget.
“If a ministry’s budget is reduced by five percent through three separate decisions in a single day, it means that a corresponding volume of work simply will not be carried out,” he said.
Kerobyan argues that such decisions demonstrate the absence of a systematic approach to governance and long-term planning.