YEREVAN, June 12. /ARKA/. Armenia’s state budget is always projected with a deficit, the country’s Minister of Finance Vahe Hovhannisyan reported on Wednesday.
“We need to fill the infrastructure gap as soon as possible,” he said in the parliament while reporting on the 2023 budget execution.
Hovhannisyan said Armenia needs to ensure that the vital infrastructure of the country is up and running and to create opportunities for individuals and companies to operate flexibly in all sorts of sectors.
The country needs high productivity and economic competitiveness, he added. The budget deficit, he said, is almost fully financed by internal sources.
“This means that the savings of our citizens and business owners are used to develop the aforementioned infrastructure. These savings are the most efficient instruments to boost the economic development of our country,” Hovhannisyan stressed.
The state budget of Armenia for 2024, approved by the parliament on December 7 last year, expects revenues to be 2.723 trillion drams and expenses to be 3.206 trillion drams, of which capital expenditures are projected at about 695 billion drams. The state budget deficit is estimated at about 483 billion drams, or 4.6% of GDP.
Fitch expects Armenia’s budget deficit to be 4.5% in 2024, before dropping to 2.9% in 2025. World Bank analysts estimate that Armenia will have a budget deficit of 4.7% in 2024 due to support for Karabakh refugees amounting to about 2% of GDP. -0-
