YEREVAN, September 30. /ARKA/. Armenia is planning to half its budget deficit in 2017, Vardan Aramyan, the country’s finance minister, told journalists on Thursday.
At their regular Thursday session, the Cabinet ministers upheld the 2017 draft government budget, in which revenue is projected at AMD 1 trillion 210 billion, spending at AMD 1 trilling 360 billion and deficit at AMD 150.1 billion.
Aramyan said that Armenia’s economy have faced outside shocks over the past two years, which should be offset by an expansionary policy.
In his words, this has increased the state debt and has widened the budget deficit.
“But we are planning to have our budget deficit equal to 2.8% of GDP, which means that we will half it, compared with 2016,” he said.
The finance minister said referring to preliminary estimation that Armenia is believed to end 2016 with budget deficit amounting to AMD 300 billion.
In the government budget for 2016, revenue is projected at AMD 1 trillion 186.3 billion (21.8% revenue-GDP ratio), spending at AMD 1 trillion 377 billion (25.3% spending-GDP ratio) and deficit at AMD 197 billion (3.5% deficit-GDP ratio).
Real GDP growth in the budget is projected at 2.2%, GDP deflator index at 4% and 12-month inflation at 4% (±1.5%). ($1 – AMD 474.57). -0—
