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| 17:13:57 | 28-09-2005 | Social |

HIGH SALARY AND BUDGET DEFICIT

The Government has approved the RA draft Law on `RA 2006 State Budget’ which
will be represented to the RA NA. According to the RA 2006 budget there will
be 465 billion ARMD as income and 534.9 billion AMRD as expense. The deficit
will be 69.9 billion AMRD.

In 2006 the budget allotments to the social, health and education fields
will be increased. Alongside with that, the civic workers and the NA workers
will have a raise of salary by 50%, and diplomatic workers – by 40%.

Measures have been taken to raise the salaries of court workers. As for the
minimal monthly salary, it has been raised from 13 thousand ARMD to 15
thousand ARMD.