Armenia’s defence spending rises to $1.84 billion in 2025

Armenia’s parliament has approved the government’s report on the 2025 state budget execution, which shows a significant increase in defence spending, amounting to 678.8 billion drams ($1.84 billion).

The report was adopted unanimously, with 57 MPs voting in favour, Caliber.Az reports, citing Armenian media.

Opposition factions did not take part in the session.

State budget revenues in 2025 amounted to 2.8865 trillion drams (about $7.8 billion), roughly 12% higher than in 2024. The revenue plan was also exceeded by 12.3%.

Growth was recorded across most major tax categories. Value-added tax collections increased by 21%, corporate profit tax by nearly 20%, and income and excise taxes by around 12%.

 Customs duties, however, fell by 1.3% due to a decline in international re-export trade in 2025. Turnover tax revenues for small and medium-sized businesses rose by 30%.

Total budget expenditures reached 3.305 trillion drams (about $8.9 billion), an increase of roughly 12% compared to the previous year, but 4.2% below the initial 2025 plan.

The shortfall was mainly attributed to underutilisation of capital construction funds, estimated at around 10%.

Spending on key sectors was distributed as follows: 873.7 billion drams ($2.36 billion) for social protection, 678.8 billion drams ($1.84 billion) for defence, 319.6 billion drams ($864 million) for education, and 165.8 billion drams ($448 million) for healthcare.

Compared to 2024, social protection spending rose by 2.6%, defence spending increased by 23.6%, education spending by 38.4%, and healthcare spending by 7.1%.

By Bakhtiyar Abbasov