YEREVAN, MAY 22, NOYAN TAPAN. 4671 new pensioners were fixed in Armenia in the first quarter of this year, and about 16 thousand ones were registered in 2006. As Ashot Abrahamian, the Chief of the Social Security and Separate Programs Department of the RA Social Insurance State Fund informed the Noyan Tapan correspondent, the number of new pensioners during the recent five years was about 5-6 thousand less. In his words, it is provided by the circumstance that during those years pension was appointed to people born in 1941-1946, and low level of birthrate was fixed in the republic during those years. According to A. Abrahamian's foresight, the number of pensioners will grow 4-5 thousand in a year starting from 2009. The Department Chief mentioned that as of April 1, 525 643 people got pension in the republic. 209 307 of them are men, 316 336 are women. By the way, the oldest among the pensioners, Hube Aloyan, a resident of the village of Ortacha, the marz of Aragatsots, is 116 years old. In A. Abrahamian's words, it is not envisaged to lower the age threshold of retiring in Armenia. In 2007 men retire at the age of 63, and women retire at the age of 61. The age threshold of women's pension every year increases half a year as a result of what both women and men will retire at the age of 63 starting from 2011. It was mentioned for comparison that, for example, women in Russia retire at the age of 55, and men retire at the age of 60.

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